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OLD A N D N E W. 



BY THE MY. JAMES CRAIK, D.D., 

EECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, LOUISVILLE. 



« The Old is better." 

"There is One Bod}^ and One Spirit, even as ye are called in One hope of 
your calling; One Lord. One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of all." 
"Earnestly contend for the Faith which was once for all delivered." 
" Hold fast the form of sound words." 




NEW YORK: 
DANIEL DANA, Jr., 381 BEOADWAT. 



1860. 




C^' 



^^^ J ^4:..^^..^/^.^- /--^ ^.//^^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Sixty, 

By DANIEL DANA, Jr., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 



TO 
MY COUNTRYMEN, 

DISTRACTED, AND AT VARIANCE UPON MANY QUESTIONS, 

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED, 

WITH THE FERVENT DESIRE THAT THEY MAY BECOME 

®ne in Cl)rist. 



CONTENTS. 



FA6B 

Introduction 7 

CHAPTER I. 
The Words of the Almighty 15 

CHAPTER 11. 
Human dealings with revealed religion in the old time 19 

CHAPTER III. 
The chief Romish sophism 23 

CHAPTER lY. 

God's method of preserving His Truth and His Church in the 
World 26 

CHAPTER V. 
Recent illustration of the rise and progress of Romanism 49 

CHAPTER YI. 

*'I believe One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the 

Communion of Saints. " 54 

CHAPTER YII. 

Christian Faith a certain, positive, and definite belief ; not a 

mere general and implicit belief. 65 



CONTEKTS. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

PAGE 

Continual care of the Church to distinguish practically between 

these two kinds of Faith 75 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Catholic Church a sure and safe guide to intelligent faith . 87 

Romish Infallibility 87 

Catholic Infallibility 95 

The Bible as ^ Creed 100 

How the Church guides her Children 104 

Popular Reaction from Sectarian Creeds 106 

CHAPTER X. 

The corruption of religion Satan's favorite work 114 

All false religions a proof of this 114 

The Papacy 116 

CHAPTER XL 

The materials, Divine and human, out of which the Papacy 

was built 124 

1. The Christian Ministry 124 

2. Metropolitan and Patriarchal authority 135 

3. Destruction of the Western Empire by a number of bar- 

barian and rival chieftains 139 

Rome the only Patriarchal See in the conquered portion of 

the Empire 140 

The establishment of the Feudal System 141 



CHAPTER Xn. 
Tlie Papacy in England 145 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Reformation 155 



CONTENTS. 5 

CHAPTER XIV. 

PAGE 

The Papal Monarchy, as stated by itself. 163 

CHAPTER XV. 
Penance and the Morality of the Confessional 171 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Eucharist 188 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Purgatory, Indulgences, and Romish Schools 194 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Saint and Image Worship 198 

APPENDIX. 

Prefatory Note 225 

Remarks on Mr. Newman's late work on the Development of 

Christian Doctrine 226 

The Roman Primacy 252 



INTRODUCTION. 



CuEiSTEXDOM is, aiid for a long time lias been, 
divided into a number of organized bodies, each one 
professing to show most perfectly and clearly " the 
way, the truth, and the life." The diverse voices, 
and the angry clamors of these various guides have 
not only disturbed most injuriously that charity 
which is the leading characteristic of true religion, 
but they have so confused the minds of men, and so 
increased the difficulty of distinguishing between 
truth and falsehood, that many persons refuse to 
enter upon the search after truth, and quietly sub- 
side into a fatal, though often unobtrusive skepti- 
cism. Others, again, who feel the necessity of some 
religion, are willing to commit themselves, without 
inquiry, to the care of the first guide that offers. 
And again, others are determined in their choice by 
loudness of vociferation, and boldness of pretension. 

It is a libel upon God to say that the religion 
which He revealed for the salvation of men is not 
capable of identification by human powers, that it is 
unaccompanied by sufficient evidence to commend 
it to that reast)n which God has bestowed upon man 
as a part of His owm likeness. The difficulties in 
the way of coming to a knowledge of this truth are 



8 INTRODUCTIOIir. 

a part of the exercise and discipline of reason in that 
religion, the first and highest law of which is, the 
devotion to God of all the m,ind^ as well as of all the 
heart. 

A revealed religion must necessarily go back to 
the time of the revelation for its evidence, and its 
fullest authentication. Any doctrine or practice 
which cannot be verified by the test of this antiqui- 
ty, — the date of the revelation, — cannot be imposed 
as of Divine obligation. That antiquity, therefore, 
which goes back to the actual revelation, is one of 
the most valuable and decisive tests of truth. Hu- 
man devices in religion rapidly make for themselves 
a prescription, and an imposing appeal to antiquity. 
But if this antiquity dates from any later period than 
the revelation, it is a false disguise, and the doctrine 
so commended must be treated as a novelty. 

It is my purpose now to apply this and some other 
tests of truth to the Christian revelation, so as to 
vindicate the faithfulness of God from the charge of 
giving to men a religion without furnishing to them 
sufficient evidence by which to distinguish His truth 
from human variations and corruptions of it. In 
applying these tests of truth, I shall refer more par- 
ticularly to the oldest and most difi'used of the cor- 
ruptions of Christianity, because the possession by 
these of that spurious antiquity of which we just 
now spoke, gives to them a delusive semblance of 
Divine authority ; and because these corruptions are 
maintained by the largest and best-disciplined sect 
in Western Christendom ; a sect whose power ot 
eflfectual operation against the truth of God, and 



INTRODUCTION^". 9 

against the rights and liberties of mankind, has been 
consolidated by ages of unremitting effort, and of 
successful usurpation. But, while exposing with 
most care the accumulated mass of errors fostered 
by this sect, it will often be seen that the same false 
principle has fructified from time to time in later 
and very various forms of untruth. 

Let us enter upon this inquiry with these two 
helps to a loving consideration for those who differ 
from ourselves. 1st. It will be seen, as the result of 
our labors, that the great majority of Christians of 
all names do really hold fast the truths which God 
has revealed as essential to salvation ; and that their 
hurtful contests and animosities are only about their 
own opposing and inconsistent devices. Secondly, 
That it is not for man to say what proportion of hu- 
man error will be sufficient to take away the saving 
power of the truth with which it is mingled. God, 
the Infinite and the Good, He is the Judge. And 
in the parable of the talents. He has told us the rule 
of His judgment. Those who use faithfully all their 
powers and all their opportunities in learning and 
obeying the truth, will be rewarded and blessed. 
The most ignorant victim of fraud and imposture, 
w^ho has fulfilled this universal obligation of hu- 
manity, may be accepted in the Beloved, and sanc- 
tified by the modicum of truth which he has dimly 
discerned ; while the learned theologian, who has 
rejoiced in the full light of pure and unadulterate 
truth, may remain unsanctified, and therefore un- 
blessed, because he did not use the truth aright. 
We can look therefore with joy upon the good works 



10 mXRODUCTION. 

and the holy affections of Chi^istians of every name 
as the manifest fruits of that Spirit who sanctifieth 
the people of God. 

To bring the subject of the following pages more 
distinctly before the mind, I here subjoin, first the 
Christian Creed, in its two equivalent forms; and 
then the Romish or Papal Creed, as the fit represen- 
tative and fruitful fountain of all the most hurtful 
heresies and schisms that have disturbed the Catho- 
lic Church in modern times. 

The Christian Creed. 

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
heaven and earth : 

" And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord : 
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the 
Yirgin Mary ; Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was 
crucified, dead, and buried ; He descended into hell. 
The third day he rose from the dead ; He ascended 
into heaven. And sitteth on the right hand of God 
the Father Almighty ; From thence he shall come 
to jndge the quick and the dead. 

" I believe in the Holy Ghost ; The holy Catholic 
Church, The Communion of Saints; The Forgive- 
ness of sins ; The Resurrection of the body ; And 
the Life everlasting. Amen." 

Or this. 

" I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Ma- 
ker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible 
and invisible : 



INTKODUCTION. 11 

'' And in one Lord Jesns Clirist, the only-begotten 
Son of God, Begotten of his Father before all worlds ; 
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, 
Begotten, not made, Being of one substance with 
the Father ; By whom all things were made ; Who, 
for lis men, and for our salvation, came down from 
heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the 
Virgin Mary, And was made man. And was cruel- 
lied also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered 
and was buried ; And the third day he rose again, 
according to the Scriptures ; And ascended into 
heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Fa- 
ther. And he shall come again with glory to judge 
both the quick and the dead ; Whose kingdom shall 
have no end. 

" And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and 
Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and 
the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together 
is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Pro- 
phets. And I believe one Catholic and Apostolic 
Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remis- 
sion of sins ; And I look for the Resurrection of the 
dead. And the Life of the world to come. Amen." 

The Romish or Papal Creed. 
" The Bull of our most Holy Lord, The Lord Pius, by Di- 
vine Providence the lY. of that name, upon the Form of 
the Profession of The Faith. 

" .... The said profession shall be solemnly made in this 
followino; and no other form, and under this followino- tenor : 

" I, N., with firm faith, believe and profess all 
and several the thing's which are contained in the 



12 ixTEODrcTio:^'. 

symbol of faith wliicli the Church of Eome cloth use, 
to wit : 

" I believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker 
of heayen and earth, of all things visible and invisi- 
ble, and in one Lord Jesns Christ, the only begotten 
Son of God, and born of the Father before all time : 
God of God ; Light of light ; true God of true God ; 
begotten, not made ; consubstantial to the Father ; 
bv whom all things were made ; who for us men and 
our salvation came down from heaven, and was in- 
carnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and 
was made man. Was crucihed also for us under 
Pontius Pilate : He suffered and was buried : and 
the third day He rose again according to Scripture : 
He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of 
the Father, and is to come again with glory to jndge 
the living and the dead ; of whose kingdom there 
shall be no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord 
and Lifegiver, who proceeds from the Father and 
the Son; who, together with the Father and the 
Son, is adored and glorified; who sj)oke by the 
prophets. And (I believe) one Holy Catholic and 
Apostolic Church: I confess one baptism for the 
remission of sins : and I look for the resurrection of 
the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

1. '^ I most firmly receive and embrace the Ajdos- 
tolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other 
customs and constitutions of the same Church. 

2. '^ Also, I admit the Holy Scrij)ture in that sense 
which the holy Mother Church hath held and hold- 
eth, to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense 
and interpretation of the holy Scriptures ; nor will 1 



INTRODrCTION. 13 

ever receive or interpret them but according to the 
unanimous consent of the Fathers. 

3. " I also profess that there are truly and properly 
seven sacraments of the new law instituted by Jesus 
Christ our Lord, and necessary for the salvation of 
mankind, though not all for every one : to wit, bap- 
tism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme 
unction, orders, and matrimony ; and that they con- 
fer grace ; and that of these, ba]3tism, confirmation, 
and order, cannot be reiterated without sacrilege. 
I also receive and admit the received and approved 
ceremonies of the Catholic Church used in the sol- 
emn administration of all the aforesaid sacraments. 

4. "I embrace and receive all and every one of the 
things which have been defined and declared in the 
holy Council of Trent concerning original sin and 
justification. 

5. " I profess, likewise, that in the mass there is a 
true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living 
and the dead. And that in the most holy sacrament 
of the eucharist there is, truly, really, and substan- 
tially, the body and blood, together with the soul 
and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that 
there is made a conversion of the whole substance of 
the bread into the body, and of the whole substance 
of the wine into the blood, which conversion the 
Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation. I also 
confess that under either kind alone, Christ is re- 
ceived whole and entire, and a true sacrament. 

6. " I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, 
and that the souls therein detained are helped by the 
sufi*rages of the faithful. 



14 INTRODUCTIOjS'. 

7. " Likewise that tlie saints reigmng together 
with Christ are to be honored and invocated, and 
that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their 
relics are to be had in veneration. 

8. ^'I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, 
of the Mother of God ever virgin, and also of the 
other saints, ought to be had and retained, and that 
due honor and veneration is to be given to them. 

9. ''I also affirm that the power of indulgences 
was left by Christ in the Church, and that the use 
of them is most w^holesome to Christian people. 

10. " I acknowledge the Holy Catholic Apostolic 
Eoman Church for the mother and mistress of all 
the Churches ; and I promise and swear true obedi- 
ence to the Bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, 
prince of the Apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ. 

11. " I likewise undoubtedly receive and profess 
all other things delivered, defined, and declared by 
the sacred canons and general councils, and particu- 
larly by the holy Council of Trent. And I condemn, 
reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, 
and all heresies which the Church has condemned, 
rejected, and anathematized. 

12. "I, N., do at this present freely profess and 
sincerely hold this true Catholic faith, without 
WHICH NO ONE CAN" BE SAVED : and I promise most 
constantly to retain and confess the same entiee and 
inviolate to my life's end, and to procure, as far as 
lies in my power, that the same shall be held, taught, 
and preached by all who are under me, or are en- 
trusted to me, by virtue of my ofiice. So help me 
God, and these Holy Gospels of God." 



OLD AND NEW. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE WORDS OF THE ALMIGHTY. 

The following passages of Holy Scripture, selected 
from a vast number of similar import, present in the 
words and upon the authority of God Himself, a 
brief epitome of the history and condition of His 
Church in all ages. They set fortli the difficulties 
which the true religion will always encounter from 
the perversity of men, and the way in which God 
meets those difficulties and preserves the truth in 
the world. 

" God hath made man upright, but they have 
sought out many inventions." Eccl. vii. 29. 

"And the Lord said unto me, Arise, get thee 
down quickly from hence ; for thy people which 
thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupt- 
ed themselves ; they are quickly turned aside out of 
the way which I commanded them ; they have made 
them a molten image." Deut. ix. 12. 

''They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and 
ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked 
Him to anger with their inventions : and the plague 



16 OLD AND :N"EW. 

brake in upon tliem. Many times did He deliver 
them ; bnt they provoked Him with their counsel." 
Psalm cvi. 28,'^29, 43. 

" Seest thou not what thej do in the cities of Ju- 
dah and in the streets of Jerusalem ? The children 
gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the 
women knead their dough, to make cakes to the 
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings 
unto other gods, that they may provoke me to 
anger. 

" Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, 
and take up a lamentation on high places ; for the 
Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of 
his wrath. For the children of Judah have done 
evil in my sight, saith the Lord : they have set their 
abommations in the house which is called by my 
name to pollute it. And they have built the high 
j)laces of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son 
of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters 
in the fire ; which I commanded them not, neither 
came it into my. heart." Jer. vii. 17, IS, 29-31. 

"Kow all these things happened unto them for 
ensamples : and they are written for our admoni- 
tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 
1 Cor. X. 11. 

" Let no man deceive vou bv anv means : for 
that day shall not come, except there come a falling 
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son 
of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God; so that he, as God, 
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that 
he is God. . . . For the mystery of iniquity doth 



THE WORDS OF THE ALMIGHITT. 17 

already work: only he that letteth will let, until 
he be taken out of the way. And then shall that 
wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume 
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with 
the brightness of his coming : even him whose com- 
ing is after the working of Satan, with all power, 
and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceiva- 
bleness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; be- 
cause they received not the love of the truth, that 
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall 
send them strong delusion, that they should believe 
a lie." 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4, 7-11. 

"As ye have heard that Anti-Christ shall come, 
even now are there many Anti-Christs." 1 St. John 
ii. 18. 

" I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him 
that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another 
Gospel : which is not another ; but there be some 
that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of 
Christ." Gal. i. 6, 7. 

'' Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the 
latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving 
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; 
speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and 
commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath 
created to be received with thanksgiving of them 
which believe and know the truth." 1 Tim. iv. 1-3. 

" For the time will come when they will not en- 
dure sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts shall 
they heap to themselves teachers, having itching 
ears ; and they shall turn away their ears from the 

2* 



18 OLD AND NEW. 

truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Tim. 
iv. 3, 4. 

" That which was from the beginning .... de- 
clare we unto you." 1 St. John i. 1-3. 

" To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak 
not according to this word, it is because there is no 
light in them." Isa. viii. 20. 

" Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and 
see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good 
way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for 
your souls. But they said, We will not walk there- 
in." Jer. vi. 16. 



CHAPTER II. 

HUMAN DEALINGS WITH REVEALED KELIGION IN THE 
OLD TIME. 

The foregoing chapter gives, in the words of the 
Almighty, a sad account of the dealings of men with 
the religion which God has graciously revealed for 
their salvation. The history of the Church of God, 
under every disj)ensation, is a pregnant commentary 
uj)on this inspired description. 

Under the first form of the Patriarchal religion, 
men became so wicked and so corrupt, that '' it re- 
pented the Lord that he had made man on the 
earth," Gen. vi. 6. Nevertheless, the merciful and 
long-suffering Creator even then essayed a Reforma- 
tion, and appointed Noah to be " a preacher of right- 
eousness," and for one hundred and twenty years, 
to exhort the people to return into the old paths, and 
walk therein. But they heeded not his words of 
warning, and were miserably destroyed from the 
face of that earth which tliey had polluted by their 
abominations. 

Again the true religion was professed in its integ- 
rity and purity by that remnant whom God had 
miraculously preserved in the Ark ; and again the 
work of corruption began, so that by the time ot 
Abraham idolatry had become almost universal. 



20 



OLD AND NEW. 



To preserve the knowledge of the truth, and to pro- 
vide a succession of witnesses to the truth, God now 
committed it to the keeping of an elect society, sep- 
arated from all the rest of the world by a solemn 
sacrament, which, to each recipient, was at once the 
instrument of his adoption into this Divine family, 
the pledge of God's grace, and the sign and token 
of these blessings. 

The history of this chosen and highly favored 
people, this nation of Kings and Priests, among 
whom God continually dwelt in visible Presence, is 
a painful and sickening detail of idolatries, corrup- 
tions, and varied abominations, relieved by occa- 
sional and successive reformations of religion. To 
stay the progress of declension, and to repair the 
breaches which apostasy had made, God raised up 
from time to time a number of godly men, whose 
special commission it was ever to proclaim, '' Thus 
saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and 
ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and 
walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." 

By the force of these appeals, aided by the judg- 
ments of the Almighty for their iniquities, the peo- 
ple were many times brought back to their allegiance 
to Jehovah, and the Church preserved from utter 
apostasy and irretrievable ruin. 

This perpetual struggle and protest against error 
on the part of a few ; this constant recurrence to the 
old landmarks, and to the truth laid up in the " ark of 
the testimony ;" these frequent, and sometimes vio- 
lent reformations of religion, were the very agencies 
ordained of God, in exact accordance with the con- 



HUMAN DEALINGS WITH EEYELATION. 21 

stitution of human nature, for the conservation of 
the truth, and for the perpetuity of His Church as 
the witness of that truth. 

That these ordained agencies, for the preservation 
of the Church and of the truth committed to her 
keeping, are in perfect accordance with the consti- 
tution and present condition of human nature, all 
must see. For human nature being essentially 
corrupt, spoiling and defiling every thing that it 
touches, the corrupting force of this nature upon 
religion is a necessary consequence. 

Nothing less than a continued and resistless influ- 
ence of the Almighty, thwarting and repelling the 
corrupting force of corrupt nature, could prevent 
this consequence. But no such resistless influence 
has been promised, and we have no right to assume 
that it will be exercised ; and the Divine Record 
everywhere shows that no such influence ever has 
been exercised. 

Again, the life-struggle of every man is a perpet- 
ual contest between his own corrupt nature, sur- 
rounded by varied temptations, and the suggesting, 
aiding, and strengthening Spirit of the Holy One, 
given unto every man, in such measure as to ena- 
ble him, by earnestness and faithful diligence, to 
carry on that struggle, and bring it to a successful 
issue in the triumph of righteousness and truth. 
But the notorious result of that struggle in the general 
is, that iniquity abounds ; that evil is in the ascend- 
ant ; and that, in the ordinary course of human 
affairs, evil would reign and triumph to the destruc- 
tion of all good, and to the utter prostration of all 



22 • , OLD AXD XEW. 

human rigM and happiness, but for those healthful 
reactions from the excess of evil to which mankind 
are driven by the necessities of their being. It is in 
precise accordance with this known condition of 
human nature in all other relations, that religion, in 
the hands of man, tends constantly to corruption, 
and is only preserved in its original integrity by a 
continual struggle, aided by those same occasional 
and healthful reactions from the excess of evil, which 
are the sad but necessary conditions of the preserva- 
tion of all good in this world. 

That the agencies, thus seen to be in exact con- 
formity with human nature and human condition, 
have been appointed and used by the Almighty as 
the means of preserving true religion in the world, 
is proved by those express declarations of the Divine 
Word, a few of which have been quoted above, and 
which is the burden of Scriptural exhortation, call- 
ing upon the Church and people of God to look '^ to 
the law and the testimony," ''to put away their 
idolatries," and to return from their wanderings into 
'' the old paths" and into "the good way." 

The divine appointment of these agencies for the 
preservation of the Church and of the truth, is proved 
beyond doubt or question by the whole history iof 
the Church during the entire period in which that 
history is conveyed to us in an inspired record. The 
whole of that record is an account of const-ant dere- 
liction and of prevailing corruption, opposed and 
arrested by the painful struggle of a few, and by 
more or less successful efforts at a reformation at 
distant intervals of time. 



CHAPTEK III. 

THE CHIEF ROMISH SOPHISM. 

I CALL the more earnest attention to this plain and 
obvious fact of history and of the Divine teaching, 
because the advocates of the worst corruptions of 
Christianity, when driven from every other shelter 
and defence, do not scruple to aver, in the face of 
this oft-reiterated fact, that any corruption of reli- 
gion by the Church, of any age or period, is abso- 
lutely inconsistent with the being of the Church ; so 
that if any corruption is proved upon the Church, 
the Church must be considered as ipso facto at an 
end, and the promise of Christ, to be with her, to 
have failed. The consequence drawn from this 
astounding principle is, that either you must be 
content to be without a Church of God in the world, 
or you must take as Divine truth every miserable 
corruption and conceit which may be foisted upon 
religion by an ignorant and a degenerate age. This 
is the strange issue and most illogical consequence 
presented expressly or by implication in every work 

of Romish controversv. 

tj 

It is not often indeed that such an issue is plainly 
presented in so many words, for the easiest victim 
of Romish sophistry could hardly fail to see the 
falsehood of the proposition, when thus nakedly 



24 OLD AND KEW. 

shown. But this issue is quietly assumed, and then 
made the basis and the substance of all Komish 
argumentation. The pert question, " Where was 
your Church before Luther?" and the bold false- 
hood, that "Henry VIII. was the founder of the 
Church of England," have no other sense or mean- 
ing than the silent assumption that every ecclesias- 
tical fancy or practice which happened to prevail 
in any age between the Apostles' time and the Ref- 
ormation, became thereby a portion of Divine truth, 
essential to the integrity and to the existence of the 
Church, and could not be removed without the de- 
struction of the Church. The present Eomish Bishop 
of Richmond, Virginia, in a long series of articles 
written to maintain the above-named assertion in 
regard to the origin of the Church of England, could 
not get beyond this position — that inasmuch as the 
Church of England before the Reformation admitted 
the Papal Supremacy and the Romish Sacrifice of 
the Mass, and after the Reformation rejected those 
doctrines, therefore the Church of England before 
and after the Reformation could not be the same 
Church, but that the later Church was a new one 
founded by Henry and Cranmer. Assuming the 
same gratuitous hypothesis, he presents this dilem- 
ma: — If these two doctrines were false, then the ad- 
mission of them desl^royed the Church before the 
Reformation ; and if they were true, then the rejec- 
tion of them equally destroyed the Church so reject- 
ing them. Tliis idea is turned over and over many 
times, and presented in a variety of forms by the 
Bishop, and constitutes, as I have said, the staple 



CHIEF EOJ^nSH SOPHISM. 25 

and the juggle of all Romish controversy. As a set- 
tlement of this point is a logical preliminary to the 
institution of any parallel between the old and the 
new religion, let us first dispose of this imagined 
dilemma. 

6 



CHAP^^ER lY. 

god's METnOD OF PRESERVING HIS CHURCH AND HIS 
TRUTH IN THE WORLD. 

Truth lias two modes of existence on the earth. 
One is, as an external realitj apart from, and inde- 
pendent of all human conceptions of the same truth. 
The other is the actual conception of truth in each 
human mind. The first is called Objective, the 
second. Subjective truth. 

Objective truth may be imbodied into words, in- 
stitutions, and actions. When so imbodied by its 
Divine author, it remains always pure, unadulterate, 
entire, and unchangeable — like to its Perfect Source, 
the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 

Subjective truth is this external reality^ appre- 
hended by human minds, and received into human 
hearts, and there combined with diversities of men- 
tal constitution, temperament, and disposition, and 
with almost infinitely varied peculiarities of time, 
circumstance, and education. The result of this 
combination is, that the apprehension of truth by 
the mind of one person cannot be precisely the same 
as the apprehension of the same truth by the mind 
of another person of diff^erent intellectual and moral 
constitution. But although there is an almost infin- 
ite diversity of character and situation among indi- 



TKrTH HOW PRESERVED. 27 

vidiials ; tliere is, nerertlieless, a certain uniformity 
in the character and circtimstances of the race. And 
so it will happen, in spite of individual peculiarities, 
that the average conception of the saine external 
ohjective truth by a large number of persons in the 
same age, and in a succession of ages, will present a 
remarkable uniformity, and will be, as to substance, 
identical. 

Tliere follows from these universally acknowledged 
facts one consequence of incalculable moment. Tlie 
truth revealed for the salvation of mankind must be 
preserved pure, entire, and unchangeable, in one or 
more external forms, the one common object of faith 
to all men^ in all times^ and under all circumstances. 
In no other way can the same truth be presented to 
different minds in various places, and in successive 
ages. And thus only can that average conception, 
of which we have spoken, be formed or expressed. 

For if the truth once revealed, be not thus un- 
changeably preserved ; if that truth, as apprehended 
hy individual minds^ and as modilied by diversities 
of mind and circumstance, is to be substituted for 
the original revelation / if this modified truth is to 
be conveyed to other minds, as the proper external 
object of faiti; and if this process is to go on in- 
definitely ; then it is obvious that you have entered 
upon a course which must conduct you farther and 
farther from the original truth, until at last the slight- 
est trace of it will hardly remain. This consequence 
is apparent ; for the persons who receive the truth 
under this system in the second place, only one re- 
move from the original revelation, will not receive 



28 OLD AND NEW. 

the same external communication whicli was made 
to the first depositories of the truth. The thing 
received being different, the result, the apprehension 
of these persons, must necessarily be different. But 
this doubly modified revelation is again to be trans- 
mitted in its newly acquired form. And thus it is 
to travel onward in place, and downward in time, 
not in its original purity and oneness, but with all 
the modifications, and all the changes, and additions, 
and subtractions, which the caprice of men, or the 
force of circumstances, or the character of the age, 
may have occasioned in each successive generation. 

Courts of law, dealing with human testimony, 
understand perfectly the extent of this changing 
and corrupting process ; and therefore they peremp- 
torily refuse to listen to hearsay evidence, as no bet- 
ter than a source of error and delusion. 

Tlie difference we have pointed out between ob- 
jective and subjective truth — between the external 
reality — and the apprehension of it in the individual 
viind^ leads to another very important principle in 
regard to testimony. In order that the conception 
of truth may be as near as possible to the external 
reality^ it must be conveyed to the mind in several 
distinct and variant forms. Even a fact occurring 
in the presence of several eye-witnesses, will pro- 
duce a somewhat varied impression upon the mind 
of each. A court, therefore, seeking to ascertain 
the fact, will require the testimony of several eye- 
witnesses, if to be had ; and the testimony of a sin- 
gle eye-witness is always received and acted upon 
with doubt and hesitation. It is only when the 



TRUTH HOW PRESERVED. 29 

same facts are received in different forms and with 
variant cii'cumstances from the lips of several wit- 
nesses, that a conrt can be satisfied of the fulness 
and accuracy of its apprehension of those facts. 

If all this be true in regard to the ascertainment 
of a simple matter of fact, how much more impor- 
tant must be the same principles in regard to a doc- 
trine or abstract truth. Let a doctrine be announced 
in a single verbal formula. Upon twenty different 
minds it will make as many distinct impressions. 
There will be a general sameness to be sure, but 
modified by very great and striking varieties. Let 
the same truth be presented to the same persons in 
an entirely different form ; and again in a third dis- 
tinct mode. Give the opportunity of frequent com- 
parison of these three representations of the same 
truth. Tlie previous diversities of impression will 
begin to disappear. In each separate statement, 
unimportant circumstances had been seized upon by 
certain minds, to the neglect of the real essential 
truth designed to be conveyed. In the concurring 
statements the circuinstances are varied ; the essential 
truth alone is repeated : that therefore comes now, 
and can come in no other way, to be distinctly ap- 
prehended and clearly discriminated from all other 
things. 

We are now prepared to understand the value and 
meaning of the answer which the Church has ever 
practically given to the great question under ex- 
amination. 

I now broadly affirm the proposition, that our 
Heavenly Father has graciously conformed ihQ 

3* 



30 OLD AND NEW. 

revelatioii of His saving truth to these characteris- 
tics of the human mind. He has conveyed to us 
that essential truth, which by all men must be dis- 
tinctly apprehended and fully believed, in three 
distinct and independent channels — by three dis- 
tinct and independent witnesses — thus furnishing 
to every man the very highest evidence of the truth, 
of which his natui^e is capable ; evidence which con- 
veys the truth so palpably and directly to the mind, 
that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err 
therein. By this Divine provision for our learning, 
the ultimate and essential condition of an intelligent 
and moral nature — individual responsibility — is pre- 
served in its integrity, while the amplest facilities 
are afforded for attaining to the certainty of knowl- 
edge. 

I affirm, then, that God has appointed three sep- 
arate, but concurring and perpetual witnesses to 
His saving truth ; and that this is the sufficient and 
sole provision which He has made for bringing to all 
men the knowledge of the truth. I affirm, more- 
over, that the Church has received and acted upon 
this Divine provision, and has never recognized any 
other. 

These three Divinely appointed witnesses to the 
truth, are — Tlie Holy Scriptures — The Sacraments, 
— The Church. It is the office of the last of these, 
the Church, to preserve and authenticate the Scrip- 
tures, to administer the Sacraments, and to prescribe 
authoritatively that profession of faith which must 
be made by all who are admitted into the way of 
salvation. The command to baptize into a belief, 



. TRUTH HOW PRESERVED. 31 

or upon a profession of faith, bestows the authority, 
and imposes the obligation, upon the Church, to 
prescribe this profession of faith. Tliis obligation to 
prescribe all necessary belief as a condition of Bap- 
tism was imposed in the beginning, and therefore, as 
long as the present dispensation continues, until God 
makes a new revelation of another way of salvation, 
the Church of succeeding generations has no power 
or authority to prescribe new articles of belief — new 
conditions of salvation. The fonnula of belief, " The 
form of sound words," which inspired Apostles 
deemed a full discharge of the obligation imposed 
upon the Church by the great commission, must be 
sufficient, until that commission is superseded by 
another. Tlius the Divine care has provided, for 
human cognizance and belief, objective truth, im- 
bodied into three distinct forms, and presented to us 
by three different witnesses. And this is the most 
perfect provision which we can conceive of for bring- 
ing men to a knowledge of the truth, in accordance 
with the actual constitution of human nature. 
Whatever opinion we may form of the adequacy of 
these witnesses to the accomplishment of this one of 
the designs of their institution, their actual existence 
as witnesses^ Divinely ordained^ is a fact which 
cannot be gainsayed. 

Tlie Catholic Church of all times, and even the 
Eomish Church in the early period of its schism, 
down to the close of the first session of the Council 
of Trent, has acknowledged the sufficiency of this 
Divine provision for the preservation of the truth. 
But the Romish Church since that time, the Quakers, 



32 OLD AND NEAV. 

and all modern Transcendentalists, liave, in their 
own several ways substituted for this certain and 
unchangeable objective truth, mere subjective truth, 
— that is, the present thouglits, opinions, and feel- 
ings of each man for himself, as the Quakers and 
Transcendentalists say ; or, the thoughts, opinions, 
and feelings of an authorized class of thinkers for 
the multitude, as the Romanists contend. The two 
former have this advantage, that they are only 
bound to believe according to their present mood, 
and to the present state of knowledge and specula- 
tion. Whereas the Romanist is compelled to stand 
by, and to profess his faith in all the variant and 
contradictory notions, fancies, and speculations 
which happened to be, or to seem, subjective truth, 
to each preceding generation of the authorized 
thinkers. 

Now let us test these two systems by the facts 
furnished to us by the Divine history of religion. 
Which of these means of conveying truth to the 
minds of men has God actually employed? Did 
He reveal the truth, and imbody it into permanent 
forms, and take care for the preservation of those 
forms, and for the presentation to men of the truth 
which they imbody, leaving the persons so taught 
free to pervert, corrupt, abuse, or fall from that 
truth, according to the dictates of their own folly 
and wilfulness ? 

Or did He commit the truth once revealed to the 
sole keeping of the human mind, to be combined 
with all human fancies, to be changed and modified 
by the knowledge and the ignorance, by the super- 



TRUTH HOW PRESERVED. 33 

stition and conceits, of each successive generation, 
and so to be transmitted as God's trntli for the sal- 
vation of men ? 

The Divine history tells ns very plainly, in answer 
to these inquiries, that God imbodied His saving 
truth first into Sacraments, and then into a written rec- 
ord^ and committed both to the keeping of an organ- 
ized society ; and that by His Providence He pre- 
served these Sacraments, the written word, and the 
Church from destruction, so that the truth so main- 
tained might always be an external objective reality, 
to the faith of every man in each successive genera- 
tion ; and that He permitted the very conservators 
of this certain truth to depart from it — to pervert it 
and to obscure it, by falsehoods and idolatries. The 
entire history of the Church is a melancholy recital 
of corruption and apostasy, restrained and corrected 
by occasional reformations brought about by suc- 
cessful appeals to the objective truth which the Di- 
vine care had preserved. This is the plain, unequiv- 
ocal testimony of the record down to the establish- 
ment of the Christian Church. Falsehood, idolatry, 
and apostasy prevailed universally, but the Church 
was not destroyed. Successive reformations, from 
time to time, swept away these abuses and corrup- 
tions, but the Church remained the same. 

Did the establishment of the Christian Church 
subvert this Divine economy ? Were men hereafter 
to have no better guide than subjective truth — their 
own fancies and opinions, profanely ascribed to the 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost ? So Francis Ifew- 
man and Theodore Parker say, on behalf of modern 



34 OLD AND NEW. 

infidelity and transcendentalism. So Romanists al- 
lege, in defence of tlie wretched fables and supersti- 
tions which ther have heaped upon Christianity. 
But what says the Divine Record ? It makes known 
the same Divine care, under the new as under the 
old dispensation, to imbody the truth as an object- 
ive, unchangeable reality, into sacraments, into a 
written record, and into the consentaneous testi- 
mony of the whole Church, including the Apostolic 
age, prescribing the terms of baptism. And it con- 
tains a vast number of pregnant references to the 
fact, that the same old leaven of corruption and 
abuse and apostasy was already at work in the 
bosom of the Christian Church, which had wrouo-ht 
such disastrous effects in the older dispensations. 

And how do the inspired founders of the Church 
say that this evil must be repelled ? Do they tell 
of a continuous, or of a renewed inspiration, which 
will be sufficient to prevent or to remove this evil ? 
They utterly ignore any such provision ; and they 
put the seal of reprobation upon such a fancy by 
pointing to the only deliverance from this per- 
petual influence of human nature upon relio:ion — 
the objective^ external truths laid ujj hy the Divine 
care for a testimony to all men, ''The time will 
come," says St. Paul, ''when they will not endure 
sound doctrine .... and they shall turn away their 
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 
2 Tim. iv. 3, 4. " There be some that trouble you, 
and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel 
unto you than that which we have preached unto 



TRUTH HOW PKESEKYED. 35 

you, let liim be accursed. As we said before, so say 
I now again. If any man preach any other gospel 
unto you than that ye have received, let him be ac- 
cursed." Gal. i. 7-9. 

Here the Apostle puts the strongest possible case 
to put down forever the pretence of a continuous or 
intermittent inspiration as a means of preserving or 
of changing the truth once revealed. The Apostle 
was undoubtedly inspired. Yet the Christians of 
Galatia had been furnished with the whole truth, in 
a form so plain and sufficient, that they were em- 
powered to judge his subsequent teachings, and to re- 
ject them if they were not according to " this word." 
An angel from heaven was to be judged in the same 
way and by the same standard. What was that 
standard ? They had the Old Testament Scriptures, 
and the Sacraments of the Gospel ; but they had not 
yet the Xew Testament writings, and the Apostle 
could hardly have told them to put their fleeting 
recollections of his former discourses in opposition to 
his solemn affirmation, or to the teaching of an 
angel. What standard of truth then had they in 
addition to the Sacraments and to the older Scrip- 
tures? Let the Apostle himself answer. He is 
speaking to a junior Apostle, a Bishop, in present 
charge of a particular church. '' Hold fast the 
FORM of SOUND WORDS, wliicli tliou hast heard of me," 
in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That 
good thing which was committed unto thee I'eep by 
the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. . . . And the 
things which thou hast heard of me among many 
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men^ 



36 OLD AND NEW. 

who shall be able to teach others also." 2 Tim. i. 
13, 14 ; ii. 2. 

That d priori necessity for a formula of faith, to 
be learned alike by all who were to make a profes- 
sion of faith as the condition of baptism, has been 
already referred to. In this passage the Apos- 
tle distinctly affinns the existence and binding force 
of such a formula, and designates it by the most 
expressiye title which could be giyen to such an 
epitome of the faith — ^' The Form of Sound Words." 
This form of sound words was '' committed" to Tim- 
othy, and he was solemnly enjoined to ''keep" it 
and ''commit'^ it again to '^ faithful men^'^ who, in 
their turn, were " to teach others also" the same 
fonn of sound words ; — the yery and essential truth 
of the Gospel, the testimony of Jesus, '' The One 
Faith," which the same Apostle elsewhere mentions 
in indissoluble connection with '' one Lord, one 
Baptism, and one God and Father of all." 

iS'othing less than such a form of sound words 
as this, explaining and illustrating the Sacraments, 
and containing the substance and meaning both of 
the Old Testament Scriptures and of the Apostolic 
preaching, could haye enabled the early Christians 
to obey the peremptory command, to try, and to re- 
ject the doctrine of those who might come to them 
in Apostolic or Angelic guise to preach another 
gospel. 

Look once more at the force of this scriptural 
argument when all its parts are brought together. 
Here is, first, the command to baptize in a belief — 
" He that belieyeth and is baptized shall be sayed ;" 



TRUTH now PRESERVED 37 

and the consequent necessity of a common confes- 
sion of the things to be believed, so that all, in all 
countries might profess the same faith. The prac- 
tice of certain modern sectaries, of using as their 
confession of faith one or more isolated texts of 
Scripture, such as the memorable and glorious 
confession of St. Peter — " Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God" — is no suflScient compliance 
with this necessity for a Baptismal confession, but 
is rather a childish parody upon the words of inspi- 
ration : and such a use of Scripture is a strong proof 
of the importance of an authoritative guide to its 
interpretation in all things essential to salvation. 
For the expressions now so improperly perverted 
were used by those who were already fully instructed 
in Divine things, except upon the single point of the 
Messiahship of Jesus ; and this confession, upon that 
single point, was not the whole of their faith, but 
the one additional article which was necessary to its 
completion. The Gentiles were in a very different 
state, and the Baptismal formula absolutely demands 
for its intelligent use and reception, a confession, 
which will set forth the meaning of the mystic 
Name, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the rela- 
tions of the Name, thus distinguished, to us men, 
and to our salvation. 

ISTow this, and no more, is precisely the w.eaning 
and sense of that hrief and comprehensive formula 
of faith which the Chnrch has imposed in all ages 
as the Baptism^al confession. 

Here then we have, in the commission to baptize 
believers, the absolute necessity for a common con- 

4 



38 OLD AND NEW. 

fession of faith for tlie use of all who were to receive 
that Sacrament. Here also we have a distinct and 
emphatic mention of such a common confession, un- 
der the significant and appropriate designation of 
"The Form of Sound Words,'' — ''committed" to 
Timothy, to be by him '' committed" to others, and 
by these again " to others also," thus continuing and 
perpetuating the deposite in the very way in which 
such a means of knowledge and of salvation would 
most effectually be preserved and handed down. 
And here again we have the Apostle solemnly im- 
posing upon one of the remote Churches which he 
had planted, the obligation to judge his preaching 
or that of an Angel of heaven, and to determine its 
truth or falsehood ; an obligation which that Church 
could not by any possibility discharge, except upon 
the supposition that this common confession of faith, 
this " form of sound words," this summary of the 
Gospel of salvation, had already been " committed" 
to them, put into their keeping, to be religiously 
preserved and handed down from generation to 
generation, as the symbol, the deposite of faith. 

The state of the Christian Church, thus clearly 
presented to us in the Apostolic writings, and during 
the Apostolic age, receives a beautiful and striking 
confirmation and illustration from the known condi- 
tion of thin2:s in the next succeedino; ao-es. In the 
scanty records of the first ages of Christianity after 
the Apostles, nothing is more prominent than the 
fact that each Church possessed a confession of faith, 
which it claimed to have received from those who 
were before them, and which it guarded as a sacred 



TRUTH HOW PRESERVED. " 39 

and inestimable treasnre, nnder the name of " the 
deposite," " the symbol," " the Creed," " the rule of 
faith." And in the discussions which soon began 
npon points of faith, one of the appeals was always 
to these symbols, and their comparative value as 
witnesses to the truth was determined by the fact 
that the Church possessing it was actually planted 
by an Apostle, or was in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of one so planted. 

Tlie facts thus clearly presented in the Scriptures, 
and in the earliest subsequent ecclesiastical recorfs, 
mutually confirm, explain, and illustrate each other, 
and lead irresistibly to the conclusion, that the whole 
saving faith of the Gospel was imbodied by each of 
its inspired preachers into a verbal formula — ''a 
form of sound words," to be the Baptismal profes- 
sion of each Church, and to be handed down sacredly 
as such. These formulse, like the Gospel narratives, 
from the same inspired source, varied slightly and 
indefinitely in expression, but were identical in 
meaning and in substance. By the comparison of 
these symbols, as well as by an examination of 
Scripture, each heresy was tried and condemned as 
it successively arose. The Fathers assembled in the 
Councils of Nice and Constantinople, distinctly affirm 
in regard to their publication and authentication 
of the Creed, that they speak as witnesses of the 
faith once delivered. Each one of the Bishops laid 
before the Council the Creed immemorially professed 
and held in his Church. The Nicene formula is 
simply the result of this scrutiny and comparison. 
The same Creed, with slight variations of expression, 



40 OLD AND NEW. 

had been imniemorially professed by all the Eastern 
Churches before the Council of Nice. Even now 
we can recover all its articles in the few and scat- 
tered incidental notices of those Ante-Nicene Creeds 
which have come down to us. In the same way we 
can identify all the articles of what is called the 
Apostles' Creed, as the common confession of the 
Western Churches. They are equivalents of each 
other, and have the same Apostolic origin, and the 
same immemorial antiquity, and they are both attest- 
ed' as the Faith of the Apostolic Church, by the very 
same evidence which authenticates the Scriptures. 

We are sufficiently familiar with the religious and 
philosophical speculations of the East, at and before 
the time of the Apostles, to perceive a very sufficient 
reason why the statement of the Divine nature as 
contained in the Christian Name of God, should be 
more precisely and elaborately expressed in the 
Eastern than in the Western form of the Creed. 
The prevalent theology of the East supposed the 
Supreme Deity to be in a state of undisturbed re- 
pose, careless and unobservant of the condition of 
the universe, while the active government of the 
world was committed to ^ons — emanations in or- 
derly succession, from the Supreme Being. This 
was probably the corruption of an ancient tradition 
of the truth as dimly apprehended by the Patriarchs. 
But to prevent the confusion of the Christian revela- 
tion of the nature of God with this human fancy, it 
was necessary to state very distinctly the essential 
Unity of that Divine nature which was revealed under 
such distinctive titles as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 



TEUTH HOW PRESERVED. 41 

Tlie less cultivated and less sophistical mind of the 
"Western nations had never been disturbed by snch 
speculations as these, and therefore the simpler and 
more direct statement of the formula called the 
Apostles' Creed, was suflBcient for them, and easier 
to be learned and retained. 

It is most certain, therefore, that God has made 
this ample and effectual provision for preserving His 
truth in its purity and integrity as an external, ob- 
jective reality, — the one unchanging object of faith 
to all men in every generation. It is most certain 
that He has guarded this truth with provident care 
against all the vicissitudes of time and circumstance, 
against all the changes and chances of human opin- 
ion, human mutability, and human corruption. To 
allege, in plain opposition to this Divine provision, 
that God has nevertheless committed His saving 
truth to the subjective fancies of corrupt and igno- 
rant men, to be the mere creature of those fancies, 
and of the ever-changing circumstances which give 
those fancies and opinions birth, is a strange contra- 
diction of the words and acts of the Almighty, and 
a monstrous frustration of His goodness and care for 
our learning and our safety. 

As God made the same provision in kind, only 
more perfect in degree, for the manifestation and 
preservation of the truth, in the last, as in the pre- 
vious dispensations of His Grace, so it is wonderful 
to behold how the perversions and corruptions of 
that truth by human thoughts and imaginations have 
been the same in all asres. The innumerable human 
Mediators, and even lower creatures, installed as 



42 OLD AND XEW. 

gods and demi-gods for heathen worship), are closely 
paralleled by the innumerable Saints and Eelics set 
up, upon the very same pretence^ for the same pur- 
pose, and to gratify the same instinct of corrnpt na- 
ture, by the Mediaeval Church, and by the modern 
Eomish Church. Yet God chose one of these hea- 
then princes to be a type of Christ, and the De- 
liverer of His people. And, down to the time of the 
Babylonish captivity, the chosen people of God were 
continually relapsing into the very worst and most 
disgusting of these heathen idolatries. Yet their sin 
and unfaithfulness did not destroy the Church, or 
subvert the truth of God, which He had taken under 
His own care. 

The Jewish idolatry of the Queen of Heaven, 
mentioned by the Prophet Jeremiah, is imitated 
even to the precise words by the Mariolatry of the 
Mediaeval and modern Eomish Church. Yet, for 
this God did not utterly cast away His Church in 
the old time. Jewish superstition, and false religion, 
induced the members of the Church to cause their 
sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to 
Moloch, to give the fruit of their bodies for the sin 
of their souls. Christian superstition and false re- 
ligion employed bodily penance, and made merchan- 
dise of the body and blood of Christ, as an expiatory 
sacrifice for sin. As the former error did not de- 
stroy the Church, neither could the latter. The Jew- 
ish sect of the Pharisees, which overturned the foun- 
dations of morality ^"^ and yet " compassed sea and 

* See St. Matt., cli. xxiii., and ch. xv. 3-9. 



TRUTH, HOW PRESERVED. 43 



land to make one proselyte," is more than paralleled 
in its enormities by the order of Jesuits in the mod- 
ern Romish Church. The Jewish sect of Sadducees 
which denied that there was any resurrection, has at 
least its counterparts in the Alexanders and Leos of 
the Pontifical throne, and in the thousands of infidel 
Bishops and Priests who crowd the Pomish Churches 
of the Continent of Europe. Yet the truth and 
Church of God were not removed by this multiform 
unfaithfulness of His people in the olden time. That 
truth remained unchans-ed and unchano-eable where 
God had placed it, in the written word, in the con- 
tinual sacrifices, and in the miraculous preservation 
of that very Church, which, in the midst of its worst 
apostasies, continued to keep that word, and to ad- 
minister those sacraments which rebuked and de- 
nounced those very enormities. 

So precisely with the corrupt Mediaeval Church, 
and to some extent even with the more corrupt 
modern Pomish Church. God's eternal truth re- 
mained the same, unchangeable and unshaken, im- 
bodied in the imperishable forms in which He had 
placed it. In the worst ages of corruption, the 
Church has guarded the Scriptures as an inestimable 
treasure, and witnessed to them as the Word of God. 
She has administered the Sacraments of Christ's 
institution, and up to the time of the Peformation 
had never proposed to those who were to be bap- 
tized any other Creed than that which had been 
used by Apostles and Apostolic men, and by all in- 
tervening ages, as a full confession of "the faith 
once delivered to the Saints." 



44 OLD AXD NEW. 

But there is not one tnitli of God -wliieli is not 
confused and overclouded br some plausible lie of 
Satan's proposal. The rerv conclusion at which we 
have now irresistibly arrived, that the falsehood of 
men has never been permitted to destroy the Church 
or the truth of God, is thus adroitly used to confuse 
the minds, and ensnare tlie consciences of weak and 
credulous people. Tou acknowledge, then, say these 
subtle emissaries of the Prince of darkness, that our 
Church is a true Church, and that we have valid 
Sacraments, and the true faith. But we deny that 
yours is the true Church, or that you have the true 
faith, and, therefore, it is safest to be in our Church. 
Miserable loofic of a deo:raded and deo:radinor reli- 
gion I God has, indeed, promised that He will pre- 
serve His Church and His truth, so that the gates of 
hell shall not prevail to the destruction of either. 
But He has not promised impunity to those who at- 
tempt to corrupt the one, and to destroy the other. 
And the confessed existence of falsehood and fraud 
in religion, imposes upon every human being the 
solemn obligation to discriminate and decide between 
truth and falsehood ; an obligation from which there 
can be no escape, except upon the plea of mental 
imbecility. 

Doubtless in every apostasy of God's ancient peo- 
ple, this was the very argument by which idolatiy 
was justified, and the fears of idolaters soothed, and 
their consciences appeased. They argued that it 
was safest to worship, not only their own GckI, but 
also the gods of the nations round about. By con- 
fining their worship to One God, they might pro- 



TKrTH HOW PRESERVED. 45 

voke the rest to anger ; but by worshipping all, they 
would gain the favor of all. With this same argu- 
ment of greatest safety the heathen persecutors 
could have plied the Christian martyrs. They were 
not required to deny God or Christ, but only to 
worship, besides them — and as inferior deities, if 
they chose — the acknowledged gods of the empire. 

Let it be remembered, too, that at each of those 
Reformations of the Jewish Church, by which the 
people were occasionally weaned from their idola- 
tries, the Priestly advocates of corruption would not 
only affirm theu^s to be the safer way, but would 
claim prescription and usage as the sufficient sanc- 
tion of every abuse, and would denounce the Re- 
formers as innovators, the propagators of a new re- 
ligion. This was the way in which the stern old Re- 
former Elijah was addressed by the idolatrous Ahab : 
" Art thou he that troubleth Israel ? And he an- 
swered, I have not troubled Israel ; but thou, and 
thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the 
commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed 
Baalim." 1 Kings xviii. 17, 18. 

Idolatrous and backsliding Israel was continually 
committing these abominations in the face of the 
sternest reproaches and the most tender entreaties. 
'' He feedeth on ashes : a deceived heart hath turned 
him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, 
Is there not a lie in my right hand !" " I have blot- 
ted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as 
a cloud thy sins : return unto me ; for I have re- 
deemed thee." Is. xliv. 20, 22. 

'' And it came to pass through the lightness of her 



4:6 OLD AND NEW. 

whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed 
adultery with stones and with stocks." ''Return, 
thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord ; and I will 
not cause mine anger to fall upon you." "Turn, O 
backsliding children, saith the Lord ; for I am mar- 
ried unto you." Jer. iii. 9, 12, 14. " Thus saith the 
Lord God: Are ye j)olluted after the manner of 
your fathers ? And commit ye whoredom after their 
abominations ? For when ye oflfer your gifts, when 
ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pol- 
lute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this 
day : and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of 
Israel?" ''I will cause you to pass under the rod, 
and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant : 
and I will purge out from among you the rebels, 
and them that transgress against me." Ezek. xx. 
30, 31, 37, 38. 

Such was the continual burden of God's com- 
plaint against His ancient people; and such His 
method of purifying and reforming His Church. 
Because His eternal purpose of redemption required 
that the Church should be preserved to the end of 
the world. He would not utterly cast off" that Church 
for the falsehoods and idolatries of its members in 
successive generations, but He wrought with them, 
by judgments, by fury poured out, by remonstrances, 
by entreaties, and by reasonings, to bring them back 
to allegiance and fidelity. Individuals and genera- 
tions suffered the penalty of mifaithfulness, but the 
Church was preserved, as it will be preserved, ac- 
cording to His most sure promise, to the consum- 
mation of all things. 



TRUTH HOW PRESERVED. 47 

The continuation of tlie Divine history of the 
Church in the New Testament, shows us the same 
evil taint of human nature corrupting and spoiling 
the truth under the last, as under the former dis- 
pensation of the grace of God. And it shows us too 
the employment by the Head of the Church of the 
very same methods of preserving the Church, and 
maintaining the truth in its integrity, in spite of all 
corruptions, and against the most lamentable un- 
faithfulness. The integrity of the truth was secured, 
as we have seen, by incorporating it into those ex- 
ternal forms which made it independent of the sub- 
jective fancies of men in any and every age. And 
the process of purifying and preserving the Church 
by a method consonant to the actual state of human 
nature, began at the very beginning. For Jewish 
and Heathen persecutions were God's agencies for 
this purpose, just as truly as were the warnings, re- 
bukes, and exhortations of Apostles and Ev^angelists. 

As a fit companion to the gross falsehood which 
we have just exposed, let us note another commu- 
nity of error between Romanism and modern Tran- 
scendentalism. 

As the members of the early Church recognized 
and reverently received the faith laid up for them by 
the Divine care, as an external truth, in the Creed — 
the Baptismal confession prescribed by the Church ; 
so did they as clearly recognize the same truth as 
the one external object of faith, preserved for them 
by the same care in the Holy Scriptures. But ac- 
cording to modern Transcendentalism, the writings 
of any good man are as truly inspired Scripture as 



48 OLD AXD KEW. 

the \n^itings of Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles. 
And, likewise, according to Eomanism, the letters 
and decrees of all the Popes are at least equal in 
authority to any and all of the books of Scripture. 
The early Church never conceived of these mon- 
strous impieties. On the contrary, it manifested at 
all times the utmost care and jealousy to perfect the 
Caxon of Scripttke, to guard it against all admix- 
ture, and to separate it from all other writings, as a 
holy and precious thing, the Word of God, the per- 
fect record of the whole revelation of the will of the 
Almighty. 



CHAPTER Y. 

RECENT ILLUSTRATION OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF 
ROMANISM. 

Haying thus established the fact, both by abun- 
dant positive testimony, and by the exposure of 
several notable sophistries on the same subject, that 
the corruption, and, a fortiori^ the reformation of 
religion, do not destroy God's Church, or take 
away His truth, our principal work is already ac- 
complished. For the Romish juggle on this point 
is so essential a part of that whole system of delu- 
sion, that when this source of error and confusion 
is entirely removed, the falsity of all the rest is 
easily perceived. When you come to look at the 
specialties of Romanism, they are all found to be 
innovations, additions, and developments, most of 
which, although hoary with age, and very studi- 
ously imposed upon mankind under the shadow of 
that antiquity, are too new to be Catholic, Christian, 
or true. One exception to this plausible and im- 
posing claim of antiquity is furnished by the pro- 
gressive corruption of the Romish Church in our 
own day, establishing the latest article of faith, the 
dogma of the Immaculate Conception. 

The history of this silly superstition furnishes, to 

5 



50 OLD AXD NEW. 

the present generation, at least, an apt and striking 
illustration of the origin and growth of all distinct- 
irely Romish doctrine. The continued working of 
that " mvsterj of iniquity" which had intruded even 
into the Apostolic Church,"^ the gradual introduc- 
tion of Saint and Relic worship, that plausible 
heathen pretence of setting up more compassionate 
Mediators between Grod and man than the gracious 
Saviour of men, which St. Paul describes as " a vol- 
untary humility and worshipping of angels" (Coloss. 
ii. 18), had brought about in the twelfth century 
such an exaggerated estimate of the Blessed Yirgin 
Mary, that some of the more forward and fanatical 
of her worshippers ventured to put forth as " a pious 
opinion," not as an article of faith, the notion that 
she was conceived without original sin. St. Ber- 
nard, the last of the Fathers, " the Pope Maker," 
and the most illustrious theologian of his age, at 
once denounced the impiety as " a nevj-fangled con- 
ceit^ and a juvenile foppery ^^'^ — as a thing '' tchich 
common-sense rejects^ and vjhich finds no vmrrant in 
jnnmitive traditlon^^ — as '* a daring novelty^ the child 
of levity^ the sister of superstition^ and the mother of 
temerity y (St. Bernard, Epis. 171:.) It is impossible 
to set aside this testimony of the man who under- 
stood the doctrines of the Church in his day better 
than any other man of his own or of many succeed- 
ing generations, by the idle assertion that this 
'' conceit" was, nevertheless, '^ always a tenet of the 
faith of the Church." 

* 1 Tlie:is. ii. 7-12. 



EECEXT ILLUSTRATION OF E0:MAXISM. 51 

This " jiiTenile foppery" being in accordance with 
the superstitions feeling of the age by which it was 
suggested, the counsels of wisdom and the notes of 
warning were nnheeded. The opinion was receiyed, 
and presently incorporated into some of the public 
seryices. A large party in the Church continued, 
indeed, to denounce it, and this has furnished one of 
the points of bitter and uncompromising hostility 
between the two orders of Dominicans and Francis- 
cans. The wonderful success of the Jesuits, who 
became adyocates of the dogma, restrained by no 
scruples, and regarding no law of God or man, in 
impressing the spirit of the Order upon the whole 
Romish Church, has at last brought upon that 
Church two great and radical changes. First, " A 
daring noyelty" of the twelfth century is now in- 
stalled as a7i article of faith^ ichich every man liv- 
ing and to live ^ from the year 1854 to the end of the 
loorld^ must lelieve upon pain of damnation. Sec- 
ond, This article of faith has been imposed by the 
sole authority of the Pope, thus falsifying all the 
traditions of the Komish Church itself, which has 
always required the union of Pope and Council to- 
gether to make an article of faith. 

The encyclical letter of the present Pope, announ- 
cing his intention to consummate this folly and 
wickedness, exhibits a state of distempered fanati- 
cism in the Romish Church, which is sad and humil- 
iating. This extraordinary document states : '* AYe 
were touched with a soyereign consolation, yenera- 
ble brethren, when we learned in what maryellous 
manner, under the pontificate of our predecessor, 



52 OLD AXB NEW. 

Gregory XYI., of venerable meniory, an ardent 
desire had been a^vakened, throiigbout the whole 
Catholic universe, to see it at last decreed by a 
solemn judgment of the Holy See, that the thrice 
Holy Mother of God, who is also the tender mother 
of ns all, the Immaculate Yirgin Mary, was con- 
ceived without the original stain Many per- 
sons are astonished that the Church and the Apos- 
tolic See have not decreed to the Theice Holy Vir- 
GTS this honor, which the common piety of believers 
so ardently desires to see assigned to her by a solemn 
judgment, and by the authority of that same Church 
and that same See. Certainly these wishes have 
been singularly agreeable and full of consolation for 
us, who, from our most tender years, have had noth- 
ing inore dear or more precious than to honor the 
hlessed Virgin Mary vnth a jparticular piety^ with a 
special veneration, and with the inmost devotion of 
our heart, and to do all which seemed to us capable 
of contributing to her greater glory and praise, and 
to the extension of her worship. . . . We confide espe- 
cially in this hope, that the blessed Yirgin, who, 
placed heticeen Christ and the Churchy all full of 
grace and of mildness, has always snatched the 
Christian people from the greatest calamities, and 
has saved them from ruin. . . . For you know perfect- 
ly. Venerable Brethren, that the fouxdatiox of ofr 

COXFIDEXCE IS LN" THE TliEICE HoLY YlRGIX ; sinCC it 

is in her that God has placed the fulness of all 
good^ so that if there is any hopje^ if there is any 
favor^ if there is any salvation^ we know that it is 

FROM HER THAT WE RECEIVE IT, heCClUSe this is the 



RECENT ILLUSTRATION OF ROMANISM. 53 

will of Him who has willed that we should have all 
things through MaryP 

This is fearful blasphemy to come from a Priest 
of the One Only Lord God, who has declared that 
He will not give His glory to another ; and who 
has set forth One Only Mediator between God and 
men, the Man Christ Jesus. Besides all the other 
attributes of Deity here ascribed to the Virgin, she 
is several times spoken of in this document as The 
Thrice Holy. From the earliest age of the Church, 
the Trisagion, the address to Almighty God as 
The Thrice Holy, has been one of the most charac- 
teristic and solemn portions of the Eucharistic 
service, and it is found in all the ancient liturgies. 
From this present and passing instance of the growth 
of superstition and falsehood, learn the whole his- 
tory and mystery of Romanism, as distinct from the 
Catholic truth which it has overlaid and defiled. 



54: OLD AKD NEW. 



CHAPTEE VL 

"I BELIEVE OXE HoLY, CaTHOLIC, AXD ApOSTOLIG 

Chukch, the CoM]srr:N^io:N' of Saestts." — The Chris- 
tian Creed. 

The manifest and palpable apostasy of tlie Eomisli 
Cliurcli in setting up, in our own day, a new Gospel 
and a new Mediator, which we have just contem- 
plated, will help us to understand more correctly 
the true nature of that Holy Catholic Church which 
in the Christian Creed we profess to believe, and 
which our Saviour Christ appointed to be the wit- 
ness of his truth to all nations in all ages. It will 
serve several useful purposes to begin the considera- 
tion of this subject by a copious extract from the 
Eomish theologian and apologist, Moehler, whose 
beautiful delineations of truth, and whose subtle 
skill in confounding that truth with the falsehood 
that is nearest to it, have seduced so many minds 
from their steadfastness and integrity. 

" Thus, to a visible society of men^ is this great, 
important, and mysterious work intrusted. The ul- 
timate reason of the visibility of the Church is to be 
found in the incarnation of the Divine "Word. Had 
that Word descended into the hearts of men, with- 
out taking the form of a servant, and accordingly 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 55 

without appearing in a corporeal shape, then only 
an internal, invisible Church would have been es- 
tablished. 

" But since the Word became fleshy it expressed 
itself in an outward, perceptible, and human man- 
ner; it spoke as man to man, and suffered, and 
worked after the fashion of men, in order to win 
them to the kingdom of God ; so that the means 
selected for the attainment of this object, fully cor- 
responded to the general method of instruction and 
education determined by the nature and wants of 
man. 

'' This decided the nature of those means, whereby 
the Son of God, even after He had withdrawn him- 
self from the eyes of the world, w^ished still to work 
in the world, and for the world. The Deity, having 
manifested its action in Christ according to an 
ordinary human fashion^ the form also in which 
His work was to be continued was thereby traced 
out. The preaching of his doctrines needed now a 
visible^ hur)ian medium, and must be intrusted to 
visible envoys, teaching and instructing after the 
wonted method ; men must speak to men, and hold 
intercourse with them, in order to convey to them 
the word of God. And as in the world nothing can 
attain to greatness but in society, so Christ estab- 
lished a community ; and his divine word, his living 
will, and the love emanating from him, exerted an 
internal, binding power upon his followers ; so that 
an inclination implanted by him in the hearts of 
believers, corresponded to his outward institution. 
And thus a living well-connected, visible association 



56 OLD AND NEW. 

of tlie faithful sprang np, whereof it might be said, — 
there they are, there is his Church, his institution^ 
wherein he continueth to live, his Spirit continueth 
to work, and the word uttered by him eternally re- 
sounds 

"In and through the Church, the redemption 
announced by Christ hath obtained, through the 
medium of his Spirit, a reality ; for in her his truths 
are believed and his institutions are observed, and 
thereby have become living. Accordingly, we can 
say of the Church, that she is the Christian religion 
in its objective form — its living exposition. Since 
the word of Christ (taken in its widest signification) 
found, together with his Spirit, its way into a circle 
of men, and was received by them, it has taken 
shape, put on flesh and blood ; and this shape is the 
Church, which accordingly is regarded by Catholics 
as the essential form of the Christian Religion itself. 
As the Redeemer by his word and his Spirit founded 
a community, wherein his word should ever be liv- 
ing, he intrusted the same to this society, that it 
might be preserved and propagated. He deposited 
it in the Church, that it might spring out of her 
ever the same, and yet eternally new, and young in 
energy ; that it might grow uj) and spread on all 
sides. . . . On this account, the Church, in the Cath- 
olic point of view, can as little fail in the pure 
preservation of the word, as in any other part of her 
task — she is infallible. As the individual worship- 
per of Christ is incorporated into the Church by 
indissoluble bonds, and is by the same conducted 
unto the Saviour, and abideth in him only in so far 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 57 

as he abidetli in the Chnrch, his faith and his con- 
duct are determined by the latter. He must bestow 
his whole confidence upon her ; and she must there- 
fore merit the same. Giving himself up to her gui- 
dance, he ought in consequence to be secured against 
delusion : she must be inerrable. To no individual, 
considered as such, doth infallibility belong ; for the 
Catholic, as is clear from the preceding observations, 
regards the individual only as a member of the 
whole; — as living and breathing in the Church. 
When his feelings, thoughts, and will are conform- 
able to her spirit, then only can the individual attain 
to inerrability. Were the Church to conceive the 
relation of the individual to the whole in an oppo- 
site sense, and consider him as personally infallible, 
then she would destroy the very notion of commu- 
nity; for communion can only be conceived as 
necessary, when the true faith and pure and solid 
Christian life cannot be conceived in individuali- 
zation. Hence, it is with the profoundest love, 
reverence, and devotion that the Catholic embraces 

the Church 

"No more beautiful object presents itself to the 
imagination of the Catholic — none more agreeably 
captivates his feelings, than the image of the har- 
monious inter workings of countless spirits, who, 
though scattered over the whole globe, endowed 
with freedom, and possessing the power to strike off 
into every deviation to the right or to the left ; yet, 
preserving still their various peculiarities, constitute 
one great brotherhood for the advancement of each 
other's spiritual existence, — representing one idea. 



58 OLD AND KEW. 

that of tlie reconciliation of men with God, who on 
that acconnt ha\"e been reconciled with one another, 
and are become one body." — Ifoehler'^s Symbolism^ 
pp. 333-336. 

Tlie above extracts illustrate very forcibly the 
common artifice of Romish theologians, to state and 
prove a great truth ; and then, under cover of that 
truth, to introduce a mischievous falsehood. 

Where can we find the Church thus trulv and 

t/ 

forcibly portrayed ? Where was it when its condi- 
tion was described by the saying, ^'Athanasius 
against the world ?" When seduced by the sophis- 
tries of error, and awed by the secular power of the 
Emperors, the Bishops in the whole world, includ- 
ing the Roman Bishop Liberius, basely subsided into 
Arianism ? Where has it been since the East and the 
West have been separated by an incurable schism? 
Is the Church which Christ established as "the 
pillar and ground of the truth," the Church of some 
particular place, or of some one age, defiled with all 
the vices and perversities of each place and period ? 
Does it subsist in a single person? No, says 
Moehler ; and no, says common reason. The Churcli 
is not in a single man, or in a collection of men in 
one place, or in one age or period. It is, by 
its charter, and by the purpose of its existence, and 
hy the essence of its heing as the hody of Christy 
TNivEKSAL LN* PLACE AXD IX TIME. To Separate the 
Church of one place or of one age from the Church 
in all places and in all ages, is to mutilate the body 
of Christ, — to present a maimed, disfigured, and 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 59 

shapeless thing, which can have no claim to arro- 
gate to itself the glorious office which Christ has as- 
signed to His Clmrch to be the pillar and the ground 
of the truth, and no right to appropriate the promise 
of Christ concerning the Holy Spirit, "He shall 
lead you into all truth." 

This precious promise was made by our Saviour 
to His Apostles. Now, w^hether we restrict this 
promise to the persons of the Apostles, and regard 
it as the necessary qualification to enable them to 
reveal the whole counsel of God in the organization 
of His Church, and in the publication of the truth ; 
or extend it from them to the whole Church as rep- 
resented in them ; on either supposition, any mere 
fragment of the Clmrch, isolated either in place or 
time from the whole, is necessarily excluded from 
the benefit of this promise. Say that the promise 
was to lead the Church into all truth. Then the 
Church in the first age must have known and taught 
all the truth intended by the promise — that is, all 
saving truth — or the promise failed in the very out- 
set of Christianity, and was so proved to be of no 
value or eff'ect. If the Churcli, which included the 
Apostles w^hile they were on the earth, was not led 
into all necessary truth, then either Christ made no 
such promise as this, or he falsified his word, and in 
either case Christianity is gone. But He did make 
this promise, and He has gloriously fulfilled it. The 
Church in the Apostles' days administered faithful- 
ly the two Sacraments which Christ had instituted, 
which imbody in most expressive forms the saving 
truths of the Gospel. The Church in the Apostles' 



60 OLD AND NEW. 

days, in obedience to tlie Divine commission, pre- 
scribed that '' form of somid words" wbicli contained 
the faith which all mnst confess as the condition of 
Baptism and of salvation — " He that believeth and 
is baptized shall be saved." The Church, in the 
Apostles' days, reverently received into her custody 
the Old Testament, and carefully collected the in- 
spired writings which constitute the 'New Testament, 
and has continued unceasingly to be the keeper, the 
watchful and faithful guardian of both. 

It is the Divinely-marked characteristic of the 
Church, that her members should " coxtes-ue m the 
Apostles^ doctrine and fellowsliip f^ and so, from the 
Apostles' days down to our time, the living Church 
in every age and in every place, in living commu- 
nion with this Church of the first and of all inter- 
vening ages, has administered these same Sacra- 
ments, has prescribed this same faith, has guarded 
and testified to these same Scriptures. 

Now we can see what is the Church which the 
Creed teaches us to believe in, and to which the 
promises of God are made. It is the one unmuti- 
lated hody of Christy " the blessed company of all 
faithful people," from the beginning until now. To 
this glorious body we are joined by Baptism, and 
not merely to the little society of that special place 
and time in which we live. To the guidance of this 
Church we can commit ourselves and our salvation 
with intelligent and unfaltering trust, for its teach- 
ings are as infallible as the words of Christ, and as 
the oracles of God. That teaching is indeed the 
very words of Christ, and the oracles of God, illus- 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 61 

trated and interpreted by the Sacraments which 
Christ Himself ordained, and by the Confession of 
Faith which the Apostolic Church prescribed, in 
discharge of its Divine commission to baptize into 
a belief: the faith which the Church prescribed at 
the time when it was in the fullest enjoyment of all 
the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit which Christ 
had said should lead its Apostolic founders into all 
truth, and bring to their remembrance whatsoever 
He had said unto them. 

By this Divine and glorious provision for main- 
taining the truth, and for the salvation of men, the 
Church is presented to every man, in every genera- 
tion, down to the latest time, as a present, living 
teacher, adapted to human condition and to human 
wants ; human, sympathizing, loving, ministering to 
all sin-sick souls, alike the same common and heaven- 
bestowed remedy of penitence and faith and hope 
and charity. By this Divine provision for the safe 
transmission of the truth once revealed, that truth is 
secured from the destruction inevitable which would 
be incurred by its admixture with the subjective 
fancies and opinions of men, as these will succes- 
sively arise out of varying times and circumstances ; 
and this truth may at all times, by reasonable care 
and diligence, be distinguished from these changing 
fancies and opinions. In no other way, that we can 
see, could the truth have been preserved in its integ- 
rity, at the same time that man was permitted to 
enjoy that freedom which is the essential character- 
istic of a rational creature. 

Now we can see how easy it is for a true Catholic, 

6 



62 OLD AND NEW. 

a believer in the Church which Christ appointed to 
be the witness and the pillar and the ground of the 
truth, to answer those questions which Romanists 
never pretend to answer at all, except by falsehood 
and prevarication denying the plainest facts of his- 
tory. In the very worst times of Arian supremacy, 
wdien faithless Bishops were purchasing safety by 
submission, the whole Church, in every place, was 
teaching and confessing the whole truth of God, by 
administering the same Sacraments, reading the 
same Scriptures, repeating the same Creed, and bap- 
tizing in the same faith as aforetime. 

And so it has been ever since. Opinions have 
changed, practices have varied, superstitions have 
grown and multiplied, and then in some places have 
disappeared. Sometimes ignorance abounded, and 
darkness was over the face of society. Again, learn- 
ing increased, and became presumptuous. But in 
all these changes of the human mind, and of human 
society, the Church of God, in its own perfect integ- 
rity, as the one unbroken body of Christ, taught 
everywhere, in the same words and actions, the same 
life-giving truths, by administering these same 
blessed Sacraments, reading these same Scriptures, 
and repeating this same Creed — the Form of Sound 
Words which Apostles uttered as the confession of 
faith, by which they hoped to enter into their rest. 

The very truth at which we have now arrived, is 
thus beautifully expressed by the Eomanist Moehler, 
and vainly does he strive in subsequent pages to 
falsify his own striking representation — (p. 338) : 

" As Christ, therefore, is one, and his work is one 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 63 

in itself, as accordingly there is bnt one trutli, and 
truth only maketh free, so he can have willed but 
one Church ; for the Church rests on the basis of 
belief in Him, and hath eternally to announce Him 
and his work. On the other hand, the human mind 
is everywhere the same, and always, and in all 
places, created for truth, and the one truth. Its 
essential spiritual wants, and all the changing rela- 
tions of time and place, amid all the distinctions of 
culture and education, remain eternally the same ; 
we are all sinners, and stand in need of grace, and 
the faith which one has embraced, in the filial sim- 
plicity of his heart, another cannot outgrow, though 
he be gifted with the subtlest intellect, and possess 
all the accumulated wisdom which the genius of 
man, in every zone, and in every period of his his- 
tory may have produced. Thus, the oneness of 
the human spirit, as well as the oneness of truth, 
which is the food of spirits, justifies, in the view of 
the reflecting Catholic, the notion of the one visible 
Church." 

It would be difficult to express, in more appropri- 
ate terms, the impiety of adding a new substantive 
article to the Christian Creed of the first ages. The 
same human nature demands everywhere, and at 
all times, "the Faith once delivered to the Saints f^ 
and that alone for its recovery to holiness and to 
God. Therefore the new " Creed of Pope Pius lY., 
drawn up in conformity with the definitions of the 
Council of Trent," in the sixteenth century, and the 
newer Creed of Pope Pius IX., in the nineteenth 
century, are marked and labelled, ''false and un- 



64 OLD AND NEW. 

christian^'' by this great Eomisli advocate; and, 
indeed, by all Romisli theologians, when they are 
descanting upon one part of their patch-work system 
— its pretended nnity and universality. 

To complete our view of this subject, and to take 
away all occasion for doubt and uncertainty, it will 
be necessary to look at it in one or two additional 
aspects. 



CHAPTEE YII. 

CHRISTIAN FAITH A CERTAIN, POSITIVE, AND DEFINITE 
BELIEF : NOT A MERE GENERAL AND IMPLICIT BELIEF. 

A STUDIED, or else an unconscious confusion be- 
tween these two sorts of belief, is an effective 
weapon in the armory of error in its warfare upon 
Christian truth. Let us willingly give, therefore, 
the time and attention that are necessary in order to 
expose the subtlety Avhich employs this common in- 
strument of offence. 

A general, indefinite, or mere implicit faith, is 
provided for in the Christian Creed, along with the 
more definite articles which constitute its distinctive 
Christian character. "I believe in God" necessa- 
rily includes a general belief in the truth of what- 
ever God may say, whether recorded in His written 
word or elsew^here. But the subsequent articles of 
the Creed enumerate those precise truths which God 
has revealed, and which we 'must hnow in order to 
act upon them. 

Mere implicit faith is faith in God, that whatever 
He reveals is true. It is that state of mind which is 
prepared to receive, to credit, and to trust in any 
communication which God may make to us. This 
faith is common to the sincere professors of all reli- 
gions — to Jews, Pagans, Mahometans, Deists, and 

G* 



66 OLD AND NEW. 

Christians. It is an important virtue, and is one of 
the habits of mind which distinguish between the 
good and the bad professors of these several reli- 
gions. 

Explicit faith is the distinct recognition and con- 
fession of certain specific truths^ directly proposed to 
the mind, and consciously received and entertained 
there as the objects of faith. It is the exercise of 
this definite faith in certain specific truths appre- 
hended by the mind, which constitutes the Christian 
man, in contradistinction to all other religionists. 

The distinction between these two modes of faith 
is founded upon the different nature of the objects 
of faith. And this distinction is as clearly recog- 
nized in the realm of nature as in the dispensation 
of grace. God has adopted two modes of revealing 
Himself and His Will to man. He speaks to us in 
His AYorks, and in His Word. The Word, or oral 
revelation, is not contrary to the other, but only 
supplementary to it : and there is a general analogy 
in the characteristics of the two revelations. All 
men believe implicitly all things declared to us by 
the Creator in His works. But the majority of men 
are content to receive, as the object of conscious and 
explicit beliefs a very small part of this glorious rev- 
elation. They thus receive and entertain that por- 
tion merely of this Divine revelation, the explicit 
belief of which is necessary to the existence and to 
the well-being of all men. Explicit belief in other 
parts of this revelation is confined to learned men, 
to whom, indeed, yet a large portion thereof remains 
to be unfolded. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH DEFINITE. 67 

"WTiile the abstruser and more curious mysteries 
of nature can only be read as the result of the dili- 
gent labors of a few, God has graciously provided 
that the more essential parts of this rcTelation shall 
be universally known and believed with an explicit 
faith. Of these necessary things, the common and 
sensible properties of air, water, fire, the laws of 
gravity, &c., the language of the Author of the rev- 
elation is, " He that believeth (i. e. with an explicit 
faith) shall be preserved alive ; he that believeth not 
shall perish." The Divine constitution of the fami- 
ly and of civil society provides an explicit faith in 
these necessary things, on the hehalf of infants^ be- 
fore they are personally capable of such a faith. 
Subsequently they must have this explicit faith in 
these things for themselves, and for their children. 

In very close analogy with these characteristics 
of this mode of Divine revelation, are the corre- 
sponding laws of the oral communication. This 
oral revelation, likewise, consists of two parts. One 
of these parts demands from all men an explicit 
lelief upon pain of damnation — as the essential 
condition of salvation. The other part, while it 
courts, and promises to reward inquiry, only de- 
mands, upon these tremendous sanctions^ that impli' 
cit faith in God's word — that whatever He has 
revealed is true — which all ingenuous men profess. 

This distinction between the two kinds of faith 
required for the different parts of each of the Divine 
modes of revelation, springs necessarily, as I have 
said, out of the different nature of the objects of 
faith in either department. In nature and in grace, 



68 OLD AND NEW. 

the necessary things in which all men are bound to 
exercise an explicit faith^ are those truths upon 
%ohich all men alike are compelled to act for their 
preservation and well-heing. 

The oral revelation consists of a vast body of truth 
which has been gradually communicated. This is 
now contained at large in the Bible. But it is just 
as impossible for the whole of this body of truth to 
be the object of an explicit faith to the majority of 
men, as it is for all the truths of nature to be so 
believed by them. Every thing contained in the 
Scriptures must be the object of implicit faith to the 
Christian. That is, he must believe that every fact 
and doctrine stated therein is true, because it is the 
word of the Almighty. He confidingly exercises 
this implicit faith in God, without pretending to 
know or to have apprehended the several particulars 
embraced within this comprehensive mode of belief. 
But the necessary things, which all men alike must 
ACT upon in order to salvation^ must by all alike 
•become the objects of explicit faith. That is, they 
must be distinctly and severally known and appre- 
hended as propositions, and then believed as true. 
Unless these particular truths be thus entertained, 
they cannot become the subjects of conscious and 
intelligent action. All the articles, therefore, of the 
Christian faith which are required to be explicitly 
believed for salvation, are those which demand from 
the believer some intelligent action in some depart- 
ment of the Christian life. All the rest of the oral 
revelation, being the historic proof, the varied illus- 
tration, and the devotional use of the former, is very 



CHRISTIAN FAITH DEFINITE. 69 

important for edification, and will well reward the 
labors of those who diligently search for them. But 
not beins: that essential truth which all alike must 
act upon, they are required only to be the objects of 
implicit faith. 

God has graciously provided in the economy of 
grace, as in that of nature, that the things necessary 
to be believed and acted upon, by all men for salva- 
tion, shall be certainly known. And the same pro- 
vision is made in the economy of grace as in that of 
nature, for the explicit helief of these necessary 
things on hehcdf of unconscious infancy^ by the Di- 
vine institution of the family and the Church. 

It was the object of the last chapter, to point out 
the effective provision which God had made for 
bringing the precise truths, which must be explicitly 
believed in order to salvation, home to the con- 
sciousness and intelligent belief of every man. Tliat 
provision we found to be eminently adapted to man's 
nature, adequate to its purpose, and analogous to all 
the dealings of God with men. It consists of the 
acknowledged facts of the Divine institution, and 
has always been received and acted upon by the 
Church. 

By this Divine provision, the essential truth is im- 
bodied into three distinct and variant forms of rep- 
resentation, by the concurring force of which the 
same truth is continually repeated, and vividly im- 
pressed upon the mind. The first of these forms in 
importance is the Holy Bible. There the essential 
truth of religion is largely set forth in the historical 
order and connection in which it was revealed, and 



70 OLD AXD xirw. 

accompanied bv the historic proofs of each part of 
the revelation. But in the sacred Scriptures the 
truth is graduallv unfolded, in the form of incident, 
prophecy, j)arable, ritual, and precept, just as it was 
gradually unfolded in these several ways, in the 
lapse of ages, by the providential care of the Al- 
mighty. To separate from this historical and devo- 
tional record, the few and simple truths which must 
be known and explicitly believed by all men, if re- 
quired of human sagacity, would obviously require 
the largest capacity, the nicest discrimination, the 
most profound learning, and the purest integrity. 
But who possesses these qualifications ; or who, pos- 
sessing them, could be known and trusted by the 
rest of mankind, as possessing them in an adequate 
degree to perform for them this all-important task ? 
But it has not seemed good to the All- wise to make 
this requisition of one man or of all men. The same 
Divine Being who difi'used the truth through the 
various parts of the Scriptures, collected and imbod- 
ied its substance and meaning into holy Sacraments, 
of which all believers were commanded to partake, 
and by the use of which, all believers became actors 
in another and altogether different representation of 
the same truth set forth in the Scriptures. 

These two varied representations of the saving 
truth of religion, were committed by their Divine 
Author to the keeping and administration of a 
Church ; which, by the very terms of its own insti- 
tution, was required to incorporate this same truth 
into yet another and different form — viz., its own 
dogmatic teaching of the faith to every inquirer 



CHRISTIAN FAITH DEFINITE. 71 

after the way of life. The A^oice of the Church, thus 
littered in the heginning hy the command of her 
Lord^ and continually pronounced ever since^ dic- 
tating the terms of the Christian Creed, which by 
every man must be confessed, is the third form ap- 
pointed by the Divine care for assuring to every 
man the certainty of those things which he must' 
know and believe in order to be saved. 

Tliese three diverse modes of conveying the truth 
to man, were indissolubly bound together by the 
Author of the truth. And as long as the Divine 
provision is honestly maintained in its integrity, 
Christian men will be infallibly preserved in the 
unity and in the certainty of the faith, by a method 
which proceeds from the authority of God, and is 
beautifully accordant with the nature and constitu- 
tion of man. 

Contrast, now, with this Divine method, the hu- 
man systems which have been substituted for it by 
the perverse ingenuity of men. Tlie sectarian sys- 
tem, as represented by its most eminent exemplifi- 
cation, the Papal obedience, requires every man to 
believe the things wliich a self-constituted authority 
may from time to time impose. But such a vast body 
of dogmas has been at various times proposed by 
the Papal authority as articles of faith, that few men, 
if any, can receive them as the objects of a known 
and explicit belief. They can therefore only be im- 
plicitly believed in the mass, without knowledge of 
the particulars, upon the authority of the tribunal 
imposing them. In other words, the only article of 
faith intelligently and explicitly held by the subjects 



72 OLD AXD NEW. 

of this obedience is — "I believe in the Bishop of 
Rome and his adherents ;" or, as thej express it, '• I 
believe what the Church teaches." All the rest is 
taken blindly and in the Inmp, without knowledge, 
as the mere object of an implicit faith. This oblit- 
eration of the distinction between implicit and ex- 
'plicit faith, resolving all religion into the former, 
except the one article above mentioned, degrades 
the Christian religion below the dignitv of Pagan or 
Mahometan faith, each of which requires the definite 
recognition and belief of certain specific truths, far 
more solemn and important than the one article of 
the Papal Creed. 

The other human system which professes to be 
most opposed to sectarianism — the system of exag- 
gerated individualism — which proposes the Bible as 
the sole Creed of each Christian man, degrades 
Christianity in the same way, by confounding the 
distinction between implicit and explicit faith. 
Very few men, if any, can so thoroughly know and 
understand the entire Bible, as to make the whole of 
its contents at any one time the. object of an explicit 
faith. The whole, therefore, is received together by 
this system, iipcm equal terms^ by an implicit faith, 
that whatever God has caused to be written is true. 
This faith, of course, is held in common with every 
man in the world who is not an Atheist. The real 
Creed of this system, and the only article of faith 
explicitly held by its votaries, is, that God has 
caused a Book to be written. The adherents of this 
and of the Papal system, alike, can only be Chris- 
tians by accident. That is, they may or may not 



CHRISTIAN FAITH DEFINITE. Y3 

happen to be taught, in addition to their system^ the 
real articles of the Christian faith as contained in 
the Christian Creed, so as to receive those articles 
with an explicit faith. Until they do thus explicitly 
believe and profess the true articles of the Christian 
Creed, they cannot, in any propriety of speech, be 
called Christians. 

The minor exemplifications of the sectarian prin- 
ciple, do not subject themselves to the charge of 
confounding the distinction between implicit and 
explicit faith. Assuming with equal right the pre- 
rogative claimed for the Pope and his adherents, of 
determining articles of faith, each one of these bod- 
ies fearlessly constructs and promulgates its own 
Creed. The infinite contradictions between these 
human Creeds imposed by equal authority ; the 
cruel and destructive divisions which these Creeds 
have assisted to occasion and to perpetuate between 
Christian people ; and the utter absence of any 
Divine warrant whatever for the imposition of any 
one of them, form a melancholy and sufficient refu- 
tation of the system from which such results pro- 
ceed. 

This contemplation of the necessary action and 
practical operation of all humanly devised systems, 
for amending and improving the religion which 
God has revealed, should attach us more firmly to 
the provision of heavenly wisdom, which has incor- 
porated the saving and essential truth, which all 
must know and explicitly believe, into three Divinely 
appointed forms. By the concurrent force of these 
sacred forms, the same essential truth is brought 



■I I Ml 



74 



OLD AND NEW. 



home to the mind and conscience of every believer ; 
while an extensive field of subsidiary and connected 
truths is left to invite and reward the superior dili- 
gence and learning of those who may apply their 
minds especially to the study of Divine things. 



CHAPTER yni. 

CONTINUAL CARE OF THE CHUECH TO DISTINGUISH 
PKACTICALLY BETWEEN THESE TWO KINDS OF FAITH. 

We have already spoken at some length of The 
Form of Sound Words especially mentioned in 
the Apostolic writings ; and the existence of which 
in every Church is irresistibly inferred, from the 
necessities of the case, and from the Apostolic in- 
junctions to " prophesy according to the proportion 
of faith," and to sit in judgment upon the preach- 
ing of Apostles or Angels. 

The next page of ecclesiastical history that is 
opened, after the closing of the sacred Canon, dis- 
plays the fact that in every Church in the world 
there was to be found just such a Form of Sound 
Words, religiously preserved, referred to Apostles 
for its origin, and called interchangeably, The Creed, 
The Symbol, The Rule of Faith. From incidental 
notices and paraphrases of this Creed in various 
authors, we can recover and identify the whole of 
its articles. An examination of the different forms 
thus restored shows, as was formerly stated, that the 
Creed existed in different Churches with an indefi- 
nite variety of terms and phrases, but with won- 
derful identity of substance. In this general variety 
of expression we can distinguish two general types : 



76 OLD AXD NE^V. 

one shorter, and used principally by the Western 
Chm^ches, corresj)onding to the form now called 
'*The Apostles' Creed;" the other longer, fuller, 
and most used by the Eastern Churches, correspond- 
ing to the form now called '* The Xicene Creed." 

Xor do the various specimens of either of these 
general types agree among themselves in word and 
expression. So that before the Xicene Council, it is 
doubtful whether there was an identity of expres- 
sion in any of the Creeds used by the Apostolic 
Churches. But this substantial sameness with in- 
definite variety is an unanswerable proof of the 
Apostolic origin of the Creed. For the Gospels 
and all the Canonical writings are distinguished by 
the same peculiarity, — the largest variety of expres- 
sion convevino; the same life-oivino; truth. 

Was this Creed framed by each Church for itself, 
after the Apostolic age, out of the Scriptures ? To 
say nothing of the fact, that the existence of this 
Creed extends far back, beyond our knowledge of 
any general collection of the Scriptm-es, it is impos- 
sible, on this theory, to account for the universal 
selection of the same truths to the exclusion of so 
many other truths contained in the Scripture, by the 
Churches of so many different nations, scattered 
over the whole earth, and separated from each other 
by difference of language, of knowledge, and of cul- 
tivation. Test this hypothesis by our modern Creed 
Makers, who profess to take the Bible for their guide. 
See, not only how widely they differ among them- 
selves in doctrine, but how they seize upon very 
different elements of the Christian svsteni as the 



TWO KINDS OF FAITH. T7 

essential parts, from those simple emmciatioiis of fact 
held and confessed with one consentient testimony by 
the scattered Churches of the Ante-Nicene period. 

Was this Creed then composed by some one mis- 
tress or mother Clinrch, and communicated for adop- 
tion to all the rest? This hypothesis is no better 
than the other. For the loftiest reach of ecclesiasti- 
cal pride has never pnt forth for any Chnrch this 
pretension ; and this supposition would leave all the 
varieties of form ^ expression^ andfnlness unaccounted 
for and unaccountable. 

The facts of the case, therefore, shut us up to the 
conclusion that each Apostle did what St. Paul de- 
scribes himself to have done. That is, he gave to 
each Church, as soon as it was planted, such a Form 
of Sound Words, such a compendium of the faith, as 
was necessary to be known by all in order to an 
intelligent administration and reception of the Sac- 
i%ments ; and as was required in order to make the 
profession of Christianity the reasonable service of a 
reasonable being. This compendium of faith, hav- 
ing this natural and necessary origin, would natu- 
rally be as varied in form and expression as we 
actually find it to be, because it proceeded from 
different persons, and w^as adapted to minds in very 
diiferent stages of cultivation and development. 

But here comes in the great stumbling-block in 
the way of Christian unity and truth — the habit of 
looking upon the Nicene Creed as the original pro- 
duction of the Council of Nice. This initial error 
brings wdth it a whole troop of disastrous conse- 
quences. For if a Council could make a new Creed, 

7* 



To OLD AND NEW. 

and impose new terms of communion on the Chris- 
tian people in the fonrth century, the same process 
might, with almost the same show of reason, be re- 
peated in the 16th and in the 19th centuries. 

The history of the Council, and the testimony of 
all antiquity, prove that the Council did not pretend 
to make a Creed. The Bishops assembled at the 
Council presented, each, the traditional and received 
Creed of the Church over which he presided. Sev- 
eral of these we now have, and they contain all the 
articles of the Wicene Greed, The Council had been 
called with especial reference to the Arian contro- 
versy. The Fathers examined all the creeds pre- 
sented, compared them with the Scriptures, received 
as genuine those that were proved to be so, rejected 
those that were fraudulent, and then authoritatively 
published as genuine and true, not the whole of any 
one of these Creeds, but that part only, of all of 
them, which taught the true doctrine upon the quei- 
tion in dispute. Now, can it be believed that this 
solemn examination and authoritative publication of 
a part of the universal Creed of Christendom re- 
pealed all the rest, and left the Christian congrega- 
tions without any confession of faith '' in the Church," 
and '4n the resurrection," and ''in the forgiveness of 
sins," and ''in the life everlasting ?" The supposi- 
tion is incredible and absurd. Every Church con- 
tinued to use the whole Creed as they had done from 
time immemorial. The act of the Council authen- 
ticating the fullest confession of faith in regard to 
the person of our Lord, and perhaps compiling from 
the most authentic Creeds the expressions least ca- 



TWO KIXDS OF FAITH. ' 79 

pable of donbt or misconstruction, and testing all 
by the supreme antliority of Scripture, simplj cer- 
tified to the distracted Churches the true meaning 
of the traditional Creed in regard to that point on 
which their faith had been assailed. This is the 
account which one of the earliest Church historians 
gives of their action. 

"The Bishops did not invent any expressions them- 
selves, but, having received the testimony of the 
Fathers, they wrote accordingly." (Theodoret, Book 
i.. Chap. 8.) Eusebius of Csesarea presented to the 
Council for examination his own formulary of faith, 
of which he said at the same time, "The faith which 
we hold is that which we have received from the 
Bishops who were before us, and in the rudiments 
of which we were instructed when we were bap- 
tized." (Theod., B. i.. Chap. 12.) He then gives the 
formulary as far as relates to the question under ex- 
amination. It is the same as the Xicene Creed, 
except that it does not contain the word " consub- 
stantial." Eusebius concurred in the decision of the 
Council ; and in regard to this word, Theodoret de- 
clares, " Eusebius clearly testifies that the aforesaid 
term ' consubstantial' is not a new one, nor the in- 
vention of the Fathers assembled at the Council ; 
but that it is of high antiquity, having been handed 
down from father to son." (B. i.. Chap. 13.) 

In reading the original documents concerning this 
great question, it must be borne in mind that the 
whole controversy began with the attempt of Arius 
to disturb the faith of the Church, and to give a 
new and lower meaning to the Creed, by an impo- 



80 OLD AND NEW. 

siDg array of texts of Scripture torn from their con- 
text ; tlie very process which has been precisely 
imitated by every heresiarch down to the present 
day. Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria, whose 
presbyter Arius first began this controversy, gives 
this account of its commencement. "Tliey revile 
the religious doctrines of the Apostles, and having, 
like the Jews, conspired against Christ, they deny 
his divinity, and declare him to be on a level with 
other men. They collect all those passages which 
allude to the incarnation of our Saviour, and to his 
having humbled himself for our salvation, and 
bring them forward as corroborative of their own 
impious assertion, while they evade all those which 
declare his divinity, and the glory which he pos- 
sesses with the Father." (Tlieod., B. i., Chap. 4.) 

The Christians of that day willingly accepted this 
appeal to Scripture ; for they knew that " whatever 
was not contained therein, or could not be proved 
thereby," was no article of Christian faith. They 
tried every Creed presented to them, therefore, by 
the standard of Scripture as well as by other testi- 
mony ; and they authoritatively published for gen- 
eral acceptance that traditional form and those 
expressions which most clearly and distinctly re- 
pelled the new heresy. But instead of making a 
new Creed, they did not even publish the whole of 
that which we know to have been the old Creed of 
the Churches. It was only when new disputes arose 
as to other doctrines of the Creed, that the same sift- 
ing examination of the traditional confessions was 
made by another Council; and the whole Creed, 



TWO KINDS OF FAITH. 81 

wliich had been immemorially professed with, many 
diversities of form and expression, was reduced into 
one common form^ula^ and anthoritatiyely authenti- 
cated as genuine and true. 

This jealous care to maintain the distinction be- 
tween the old traditional Creed '' committed " to the 
Church, and their own doctrinal decisions, was man- 
ifested by all the ancient Councils. The contempo- 
rary expositions and defences of the Creed which 
were deemed necessary, as well as all other doctrinal 
determinations, were put into the form of Synodal 
Epistles, Decrees, Canons, Definitions, and Anathe- 
mas. The Council of Ephesus, a. d. 431, called 
especially to consider the heresy of Is^estorius, ex- 
pressed its determinations in all these forms, and at 
the same time gave this strong and emphatic testi- 
mony to the sacredness with which the early Church 
guarded the integrity of the ancient Creed : — '' Can- 
on 7. These things having been read, the holy 
Synod has determined that no person shall be allowed 
to bring forward, or to write, or to compose any 
other Creed besides that which was settled by the 
Holy Fathers who were assembled in the City of 
Kicsea with the Holy Ghost. But those who shall 
dare to compose any other Creed, or to exhibit or to 
produce any such to those who wish to turn to the 
acknowdedgment of the truth, whether from Hea- 
thenism or Judaism, or any heresy whatever, if they 
are Bishops or Clergymen, they shall be deposed." 

This is conclusive. It settles forever the question 
we have been considering. It distinguishes clearly 
the faith of the universal Church from all the de- 



82 OLD AND NEW. 

crees, definitions, and confessions of general and 
provincial Councils. It presents the Christian Creed 
in its nncorrupt integrity, as The One Faith of the 
whole Catholic Chnrch of all ages ; which alone, by 
all to whom it is proposed, mnst be professed as the 
condition of salvation ; while it assigns to the doc- 
trinal decrees of Ephesus, of Aiigsbnrg, of Trent, 
and of London, only that persuasive authority which 
is inherent in the reason of their determinations, or 
may be deduced from the character and position of 
the Councils that enacted them. 

The so-called Athanasian Creed has precisely the 
same relation to the Christian Creed with these Sy- 
nodal definitions and expositions. It is indeed noth- 
ing more than a brief and masterly synopsis of these 
very acts of the Councils, made by some unknown 
person, and it cannot therefore occupy a higher place 
in Christian theology than the source from which it 
proceeded. We must admire that overruling care 
of Divine Providence which induced the American 
Church to remove this document from a position in 
which it was liable to be confounded with the old 
Christian Creed, as of equal value and authority. 
This act of the American Church removes one preg- 
nant source of confusion and difficulty in distin- 
guishing between Faith and Doctrine — the Faith 
that is for all, and the Learning that is for those 
who have the capacity and the opportunity to ac- 
quire it. 

Another source of confusion on the same point, is 
the addition of the words ''filioque" to the Nicene 
Creed by the Western Churches. While, with most 



TWO KIN'DS OF FAITH. 83 

of our theologians, I regret tliat addition to the form 
set forth by the councils of Nice and Constantino- 
ple, yet it seems to me that the way in which these 
words were introduced, furnishes a very happy 
illustration of that history of the Creed which we 
have already given. 

ISTo one disputes the truth of these words. Is'or 
does the addition of them make any appreciable 
difference in the universal Christian conception of the 
profoundly mysterious subject to which they relate. 
No question, no controversy preceded their intro- 
duction. They first appear in the " acts" of a Pro- 
vincial Council, held at Toledo, in Spain, about the 
year 447. It was the custom of every council to 
recite the Creed in its first day's proceedings, and to 
place the Creed so recited upon the record. In the 
performance of this customary duty, this Spanish 
Council recited and recorded in its proceedings the 
Nicene Creed with the addition of these words, which 
attracted no notice or remark in the council at all. 
Now, when we recollect that every Church had its 
own traditional Creed, handed down from its origin, 
which it used both before and after the Council of 
Nice, the inference seems irresistible, that these 
words " filioque" were in the old Creed of the Spanish 
Churches, founded by Apostles and Apostolic men. 

This supposition is the only way in which to ac- 
count for the words at all in such an unpretending 
and matter-of-course way. And the fact that this 
form was found to be in general and established use 
in the Western churches two hundred years later, 
when the question first excited attention as a part 



84 



OLD AXD NEW. 



of the rising controversy between the East and 
West, gives additional force to this conclusion. 

Every avenue of inquiry we thus perceive to lead 
to that position which alone is in harmony with the 
Divine Word — that, The Faith is One, that it has 
been held from the beginning, and has been trans- 
mitted in its integrity to us. 

To this same safe and glorious conclusion we are 
conducted by the justly celebrated rule of Yincent 
of Lerins — " Sempee, Ubique, et ab Omnibus — Al- 
ways, Everywhere, and by All." For no doctrines 
of faith can stand the trial by this test, but the Arti- 
cles of the ancient Creed of Christendom. 

So thoroughly had this great principle pervaded 
the Christian mind, that even the Council of Trent, 
which consummated the schism of the Eomisli 
Church, celebrated its first session by this emphatic 
testimony to the integrity and sole supremacy of 
The One Faith of the whole Catholic Chm*ch. 
" Therefore that this its pious care may, both in its 
commencement an*d its progress, enjoy the favor of 
God, it hath appointed and decreed, that before all 
things confession of faith be made ; following in 
this the examples of the fathers, who were accus- 
tomed in their sacred councils, at the very begin- 
ning of their proceedings, to hold up this shield 
against all heresies, by which means alone they 
have not unfrequently drawn infidels to the faith, 
confuted heretics, and confirmed believers. Where- 
fore the Council hath thought proper to recite in 
that form of words which is read in all Churches, 
the confession of faith adopted by the holy Roman 



TWO KINDS OF FAITH. 85 

Churcli, which contains the first prin'ciples in which 
all who profess the faith of Christ necessarily agree, 
and is the firm and only foundation against which 
the gates of hell shall never prevail. It is as fol- 
lows : — I believe " — reciting the Is'icene Creed. 
Oh ! that the spirit of this true and noble confes- 
sion could have characterized the continuance and 
the conclusion of this mischievous assembly ! Then 
would Satan's direst weapon of offence against the 
truth and Church of God never have been forged. 
Tliis first act of the Council, designating and pro- 
fessing the true Christian ^'confession of Faith ^^^ is 
the most solemn and emphatic condemnation of all 
its subsequent work. Let it ever be remembered, 
too, that this great Christian act of the Council 
puts the seal of reprobation, in the most decisive 
way, upon all those Eomish controversialists who 
presume to apply the promise of Christ, that ^' the 
gates of Hell shall not prevail against it," to St. 
Peter, and not to the faith which St. Peter con- 
fessed — the faith of the whole Church. This boast- 
ful communion, which bases its most taking ap- 
peal to unstable souls upon the imagined certainty 
and infallibility of its interpretations of Scripture, 
here beautifully illustrates the fraud and false- 
hood of its pretensions, by giving us an interpre- 
tation of Scripture in the most solemn form possi- 
ble, and by its most august authority, which most 
of its dignitaries and all of its controversialists have 
ever since denied, and bitterly denounced as a Prot- 
estant error. The Confession of Faith imbodied 
in the Nicene Creed, '' is the firm and Only Foun- 

8 






bb OLD AND NEW. 

DATION AGAINST WHICH THE GATES OF HeLL SHALL 

NEVER PREVAIL," sajs tliG CoHncil of Trent ; and 
every attempt of Romish theologians to make St. 
Peter and his imagined successors to be that foun- 
dation, is an impudent attempt to impose upon the 
credulity of the unlearned. 

Every one of these theologians has solemnly 
promised, and sworn as an act of Christian faith, to 
" admit the Holy Scriptures according to that sense 
which our holy mother (the Roman Church) has 
held and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of 
the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures." 
(Creed of Pope Pius lY., Art. 2.) When, there- 
fore, these men undertake to cheat and deceive the 
people by interpreting this passage of Scripture in 
a sense entirely opposed to this authoritative inter- 
pretation of the Council, they can only hope to 
escape from the crime of perjury, and from the 
damnation denounced by their Creed against all 
who depart from the teachings of the Church, by 
virtue of that Papal dispensation which permits 
and sanctions fraud and falsehood when used in the 
service of the Church, and for the conversion of 
unbelievers. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH A SURE AND SAFE GUIDE TO 
INTELLIGENT FAITH. 

§ EoMiSH Infallibility. 

One of the many illusions of Romanism is the 
claim so Tauntingly preferred, that " The Holy Ro- 
man Church" is the only infallible Interpreter of 
Scripture, Judge of Controversies, and Guide to 
Truth, amid the mazes of error and the contradic- 
tory opinions by which the minds of men are be- 
wildered and confused. " You want a living, pres- 
ent, and infallible judge of controversies," whispers 
the wily Jesuit to his yielding victim ; '' and this, of 
course, you cannot find in the jarring voices of so 
many Protestant Sects. To have a lirm and im- 
movable faith, you must submit yourself unreserved- 
ly to the teaching of our holy Mother." Few argu- 
ments so radically unsound have been so prevailing 
as this one. The reason of this success of an egre- 
gious sophism is very plain. There is a large class 
of minds with no self-reliance. Tliese persons are 
pained by the necessity of exercising their reason, 
and forming a judgment, on which they must act, 
on any subject. They are therefore the inevitable 
victims of charlatanry and impudent pretension in 



88 OLD AND KEW. 

every department of life. Unscrupulous assertion is 
the one all-prevailing argument with these people, 
from the selection of a drug to the choice of a reli- 
gion. Possibly the most confiding of these amiable 
souls may be roused to some degree of healthful 
jealousy by looking, even for a moment, at the prac- 
tical difficulties which inhere in the friendly counsel 
of the courteous Jesuit professor. 

In the first place, every Sect in Christendom very 
dogmatically prescribes its own Creed as the solvent 
of all difficulties, and the settler of all questions and 
scruples. If you will only receive, with proper sub- 
mission, the dogmatic determinations of these sects, 
even of the last one represented by those great lights 
of modern illumination, Emerson and Francis ]N~ew- 
man, you need give yourself no trouble about the 
terms of your religion or the articles of your faith. 
These last named gentlemen will be very happy to 
do all your thinking for you, if you will but trust to 
them. It is true that they may not, any more than 
the Pope, prescribe the same religion for you this 
year that they did the last, but that makes no differ- 
ence, if you will hut trust in them. 

Here, perhaps, you may ask. Why should we trust 
in these ingenious gentlemen, or in any of the Sects 
who undertake to prescribe a religion for us ? What 
claim have they upon our confidence as infallible 
expositors of truth? Ah! there is the question 
which, unfortunately for your weakness, but for- 
tunately for you as men, involves the whole of that 
fearful personal responsibility for the right exercise 
of all your powers in religion which God has im- 



EOMISH rNTALLIBILITY. 89 

posed upon every human being, and from which 
none can escape. 

Why should you confide in these gentlemen, or 
in the Komish Sect, or in any other Sect, as your 
Creed Makers? The Komish Church tells you to 
trust in her because she is '' the Mother and Mistress 
of all Churches." (Creed of Pius lY.) But is this 
ground of her claim derived from an actual grant 
from the Almighty, or is it only a bold falsehood 
flaunted in flaming capitals in her Quack Advertise- 
ment, to impose upon the credulity of the simple ? 
The most simple can test the whole pretension by 
the indisputable answer which this question must 
receive from learned and unlearned alike. Every 
Christian knows that the Church was first gathered 
in Jerusalem, and grew there to large and imposing 
proportions, before the Gospel was even preached 
beyond the holy City. And there was the first resi- 
dent Bishop, St. James, selected for that important 
post by all the Apostles, and presiding in all assem- 
blies of the faithful in that City. And the inspired 
record tells us that there were many, probably many 
hundred, flourishing Churches established in the 
East long before the Church of Rome had an exist- 
ence or a name. 

One falsehood in this advertisement is therefore 
most palpable and shameless. The eftrontery of the 
other is almost as great. If any one Church is the 
" mistress ^''^ by Divine appointment, of all other 
Churches, that fact is a most important and essential 
part of Christianity, and must needs be first plainly 
proved by the record, by unquestionable Divine 



90 OLD AND ]SrEW. 

warrant. "Where tlien is the record of this appoint- 
ment ? Is it in the Scriptures ? That is not pre- 
tended. Is it in the Creed, the old traditional con- 
fession of faith? No. That teaches us to believe 
in " One Holy, Catholic Church." Is it even to be 
found in ancient writers, fanciful and absurd as some 
of them were ? No : neither the name nor the thing 
was heard of in the early ages of the Church. Both 
branches then of the Eomish claim to prescribe your 
faith, when that prescription departs from the teach- 
ing of the Catholic Church, is proved to be false. 
It has no other ground than its own unsupported 
pretension. The claim is just as good, and no better, 
than the claim of Newman, Ann Lee, and Joe Smith, 
to do the same thing. 

Another pretty little device of these insinuating 
gentlemen is to make their advertisement more at- 
tractive by a pictorial embellishment. They draw 
a fine tree, label the trunk with the name of their 
own Sect, and then mark as branches, I know not 
whether attached or broken off, all the other Chris- 
tian bodies. Our good friends the Baptists have re- 
sorted to this same pictorial argument. They have 
a tree of their own ; and in their tree the Baptist 
Sect figures on the trunk. And certainly every 
other Sect could, with as much propriety as these 
two, have a tree and mark its own name on 
the trunk. This is all very well as a pleasant 
way of teaching what is supposed to be the truth, to 
children. But the question whether the thing so 
taught is the truth, is to be settled by the laws of 
evidence ; and to present such a thing to reasonable 



EOMISH INFALLIBILITY. 91 

people as an argument, is sometliing worse than 
child's play. It is a gross insult, because it assumes 
that the person so dealt with has really no in- 
telligence. 

But suj)pose some one is weak enough to allow 
this unsupported claim, how is it to be exercised ? 
How is this good easy soul to be infallibly guided 
into all truth — in all controversies, and among all 
difficulties ? To no individual, as Moehler tells us, 
and as all Komish theologians acknowledge, does 
infallibility belong. When, therefore, our puzzled 
but confiding seeker after peace and certainty and 
assurance goes with his perplexities and his difficul- 
ties to his Priest, or even to his Bishop, neither can 
speak but with mere human fallibility, and so he 
must be content to grope along in doubt, and dark- 
ness, and dread, not knowing what to believe. To 
be sure, if his difficulty happens to be one that the 
Eomish Sect has already decided upon, the Priest 
can refer him to that decision ; and whether the de- 
termination be reasonable or self-contradictory, the 
slave of credulity can bow down his soul in meek 
submission to a power which he has already deter- 
mined to acknowledge as Divine. But except for 
these few cases, the Romanist has no other guide 
than the interested^ fallible testimony of his Priest j 
for his own reason has been deliberately discarded. . 

"Will he in this emergency appeal to the Church ? 
Alas ! the Romish Church has been six hundred 
years trying to decide the bitter and furious contest 
waged between the Dominicans and Franciscans 
about the supposed immaculate conception of the 



92 OLD AND NEW. 

Yirgin Maiy, and only came to a decision on the 
8tli day of December, 1854, declaring that to be an 
article of faith which the greatest of Romish theo- 
logians had denonnced as a daring impiety, and a 
juvenile foppery, in the twelfth century. How 
many thousands of pious liomanists must have lived 
in the most distressing doubt and perplexity, and 
have gone down to the grave in darkness and de- 
spair, in regard to this great article of the Christian 
faith, during all these weary centuries ! 

But here the sympathizing " Spiritual Director" 
undertakes to calm the reasonable anxieties of his 
pupil, by telling him '' that it is lawful to remain 
in doubt upon all points in regard to which the 
Church has not authoritatiyely spoken." At last, 
then, the Eomish advocate is driven for shelter to 
the common refuge of humanity — a little com- 
mon-sense. There is then a necessary distinction, 
which the same advocate has tried so hard to re- 
pudiate, between truths which are essential and 
must be believed, and those which are not so. This, 
it will be seen presently, is that cardinal principle 
of God's administration of His Church which recon- 
ciles in religion the two great facts of human con- 
dition — authority and freedom; but even the en- 
forced admission of this principle would put an end 
forever to the cant about the necessity of an infallible 
judge of controversies, other than the Catholic 
Church of all ages, if these advocates were capable 
of shame, or amenable to reason. 

But there are still other difficulties about the 
practical exercise of this Eomish infallibility of 



ROMISH INFALLIBILITY. 93 

interpretation, supposing tliat a person had made 
up his mind to submit to the pretension. 

The Creed which that Church has put forth as its 
most solemn determination, contains this inconsist- 
ent and impossible article : — " 2. I also admit the 
Holy Scriptures according to that sense which our 
holy mother Church has held and does hold, to 
whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and 
interpretation of the Scriptures : neither will I ever 
take and interpret them otherwise than according 
to the unanimous consent of the Fathers." (Creed 
of Pius lY.) The 12th article of the same Creed 
declares, that the Church of Rome is the '' Mother" 
referred to in the 2d article. 

It will be recollected that this new Romish Creed 
is appended to the Xicene Creed, and the two 
together are made to be one profession of faith. In 
the Tsicene part of the Creed the disciple makes a 
Christian profession in these words : " I believe one 
Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church ; " and imme- 
diately afterwards, in the Romish j)art, contradicts 
this good profession, by setting up the Roman 
Church over the Catholic Church, as the only 
" Judge of the true sense and interpretation of the 
Scriptures." Tliis submission in all things to the 
Roman Church, instead of to the Catholic Church, 
in their most solemn profession of faith, properly 
entitles the adherents of this sect to the name, Ro- 
manists ; and it is a very great weakness, as well as 
very ill-manners, for them to complain and manifest 
displeasure when this, their own professed distinctive 
title, is courteously conferred upon them. But the 



94 OLD AND KEW. 

article makes the Eomish disciple go still fartlier in 
confusion and absm^dity, by requiring liim to set up 
his private learning and judgment above both Ro- 
man and Catholic Church, by promising never " to 
take and interpret them (the Scriptures) otherwise 
than according to the unanimous consent of the 
Fathers,^'' K'ow, as not one in one million of 
Romanists has ever read the Fathers, they are 
bound by this oath not to take the Scriptures in 
any sense whatever, because they cannot know what 
is ^' the unanimous consent of the Fathers ;" and 
those who have read the Fathers are in a still worse 
predicament. For it is certain that, heyond the 
terms of the old Christian Greedy the Fathers are 
strangers to any unanimous consent, or even reason- 
able concurrence of opinion, in regard to the inter- 
pretation of Scripture. So that, by the express terms 
of his Creed, every Romanist is compelled to remain 
in distressing doubt, and in dark unbelief of the true 
sense and meaning of the Scriptures. 

The same Creed contains also this article : ''11. I 
likewise undoubtedly receive and profess all other 
things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred 
canons and general councils, and particularly by the 
Holy Councdl of Trent." 

Now, here is a notable proceeding. These people 
profess to be very much scandalized, because certain 
Protestant sects profess to receive the Bible as the 
sole guide to faith ; and they descant with indig- 
nant eloquence upon the uncertainties and divisione 
thence arising. And then, as a substitute for the 
Bible, to prevent uncertainties and to cure divisions, 



CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITT. 95 

they propose, as the object of faitli^ several hundred 
volumes of the Fathers, and " all other things deliv- 
ered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons 
and general councils, and particularly by the Holy 
Council of Trent," all of which are utterly unknown 
and inaccessible to the great body of the people and 
to the larger number of the Priests! This is the 
Komish recipe for the obscurities and uncertainties 
of the Divine Word ! 

Contrast with this wretched jumble of folly, con- 
tradiction, and profanity, the Divine provision for 
the support and guidance of faith. The Catholic 
Church, speaking in all ages with one voice, making 
confession for all ages of but One Faith, applying to 
the same common disease of the one universal hu- 
manity the ONE Divinely prescribed remedy^ alone 
realizes the eloquent conception of the Church and 
her office, which we have cited from the Romish 
theologian Moehler. 

§ Catholic Infallibility. 

All prevalent errors start from some truth. This 
truth, no matter how far they depart from it, is used 
as the passport and authentication of those errors. 
So, all the impieties and absurdities that have grown 
out of the dogma of infallibility in the Romish 
Church have started from a trutli, which the human 
soul recognizes, and which Divine revelation as- 
sumes. That truth is, that there must be in revealed 
religion some facts so plainly set forth, and so fully 
authenticated as the very substance of that religion, 
that all ground of reasonable doubt as to those facts 



96 OLD AND NEW. 

may be taken away, and a universal concurrence of 
all wlio receive the religion in tlie acknowledgment 
of those facts, may be secured. 

This statement has been carefully limited, so far as 
to exclude the mischievous fancy that any truth of 
religion must be so revealed as to compel assent. 
The weakness of corrupt nature desires to have such 
a religion. But God has never gratified that desire, 
because any such enforced belief would be incon- 
sistent with the reasonable nature which it is the 
very object of religion to bring back to that perfect 
image of God in which man was created. Men, 
therefore, may and do refuse to believe, not only in 
Christ and in His Church, but in God, and even in 
Humanity. There is no sort of compulsion, no irre- 
sistible evidence, in religion. 

But the character of the human mind, and its 
diversities of power and cultivation, require that 
certain truths of religion — those which constitute its 
substance, and without which it could not be, and 
which therefore must be understood and confessed 
by all — should be conveyed to all with a directness 
and with a force of evidence not given to the sub- 
sidiary parts and to the connected circumstances of 
the same religion. 

For, if all the parts of so complex and manifold a 
thing as a religious system were conveyed alike with 
the same directness and with the same force, to all 
minds — as it is impossible that the whole could be 
consciously apprehended and received by all, on 
account of the inequality of human powers and 
opportunities — the inevitable result would be, that 



CATHOLIC rNFALLIBILITY. 97 

eacli man would seize upon the truths that happened 
to strike his fancy, or to agree best with his idio- 
syncracies, and rest in them^ to the neglect of other 
and far more important truths ; — thus converting 
religion into an infinite variety of partial, confused, 
and defective systems, in each of which the mental 
peculiarities of those who had selected favorite 
truths from the great body of revelation, would 
have distorted and changed those very truths into 
falsehoods. 

This a priori consequence we see to be realized, to 
a certain extent, by the various sects who undertake 
to get their religion exclusively from the written 
record of the religion that God has revealed. Each 
founder of a Sect selects from that great and glori- 
ous record the truths that are most strongly im- 
pressed upon his mind, and his followers accept 
these truths as the true Christianity. The circum- 
stances which lead to this selection are as various as 
the diversities of human mind and situation. For 
the most part, and happily, all these "independ- 
ent " thinkers are unconsciously guided, in their un- 
derstanding of the Scriptures, by the Divine provi- 
sion which has preserved the Church in the world 
to be the teacher and guide of the people. And so 
the heresiarch readily perceives in the multifarious 
record the very truths which he had been taught, 
and which he had loved when sitting on his moth- 
er's knee. But while in this way the greater part 
of the old traditional faith is acknowledged and 
received, the spirit of opposition, or some popular 
reaction, controls the choice in other particulars, 

9 



98 OLD AND NEW. 

and so we have the motley and incongruous appear- 
ance of modern Christendom. 

The truths which constitute the substance of a 
religion, without which it could not be, and which 
therefore must be confessed by all, must necessarily 
be the same in every generation. They must there- 
fore have been as fully known, and as clearly under- 
stood, by the first converts as by their successors. 

The abstract proposition thus seen to be a neces- 
sary truth in regard to any religion, is fully and 
perfectly realized in the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
The terms of the great commission — '* He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that 
believeth not shall be damned," assumes the exist- 
ence of certain essential truths which may be directly 
conveyed and sufficiently authenticated to all, and 
fully apprehended and received by all. 

The institution of the Church, with the power and 
authority conferred upon it, fully met and satisfied 
this necessity. Religion consists of the Oredenda 
and the Agenda^ — the things to be believed and the 
things to be done. The Church, teaching and pre- 
scribing the things to be believed as a condition of 
Baptism, brought directly home to all minds alike 
the essential things to be believed — those things 
without the belief of which a man could not i -c a 
Christian. The Church, administering the same 
Sacraments to all, and imposing the same ''ten 
commandments" upon all, brought home to all 
alike the same essential things to be done to make 
a Christian. Beyond these necessary things, the 
substance and essence of Ciiristian religion, there is 



CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY. 99 

in the Scriptures and in Nature a large amount of 
truth, — doctrine, precept, proof, illustration, ritual, 
prophecy, history, biography, parable, — not neces- 
sary to all as the condition of salvation, but to be 
used and appropriated by those to whom God has 
given the mind and the opportunity to acquire this 
learning. 

But by the very terms of salvation under the 
Christian Covenant, ''He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved," the things required to be 
believed upon that sanction, must have been con- 
sciously held and confessed by all whom the Apos- 
tles admitted into the Christian Church ; and must 
have been held and confessed by all who have since 
been admitted : and so we have directly conveyed 
to each Christian man, in each generation, with the 
strongest possible Divine authentication consistent 
with the reasonable nature of Christianity, tJie 
tilings to he Relieved — the Christian Creed. 

This sufficient and satisfying evidence, meeting 
all the demands of human reason, and applying 
with the same force and directness to every class 
and condition of men, to the learned and the un- 
learned, to the philosopher and the peasant, may, 
without much impropriety, be called infallibility. 
At least there is no certainty beyond it, and the 
human mind can rest in that with full assurance of 
faith. 

But as to the pretence of infallibility in regard to 
facts and doctrines not thus authenticated ; the at- 
tempt of any man, or sect, to impose upon the 
Christian people any articles of belief as essential 



100 OLD A^^D KEW. 

to salyation whicli were not so acknowledged and 
received in the Apostolic age and thereafter ; the 
whole thing is an impndent cheat, palmed off under 
the cover of that real infallibility which we have 
just described, uj)on the weak credulity of one class, 
and upon the facility and indifference of another. 

There may be in regard to any religious doctrine, 
opinion, or speculation, more or less of certainty, — 
a nearer or more distant approach to that full assur- 
ance which accomjDanies the evidence of the Chris- 
tian Creed, according to the capacity and to the 
opportunity of learning of each inquii^er. But be- 
tween these doctrines, opinions, and speculations, 
and the necessary articles of belief, there must be 
this vast chasm— that the evidence of the latter is 
brought directly home by the Divine provision to 
all minds with the same assurance, whereas the 
former can only be known to those whose capacity 
of mind and opportunity of learning are above the 
average condition of mankind. 

§ The Bible as a Creed. 

It will illustrate this great principle, to refer a lit- 
tle more distinctly to the dogma of a very recent 
sect. 

For a good while, the assertion that the Bible is 
the Christian Creed was merely a popular theme of 
platform divinity, used by certain persons, in vari- 
ous denominations, who did not well understand the 
Protestant decisions in regard to the authority and 
use of Holy Scripture. But lately this notion, be- 
ing thus impressed upon the popular mind, has 



THE BIBLE AS A CREED. 101 

found, like so many other notions, precise expres- 
sion in the form of a Sect. 

Religion, as we have seen, is a vast body of truth 
touching all human knowledge,. and every part of 
human nature. To fathom all its depths, to explore 
it in all its breadth and comprehensiveness, is the 
delightful task of the most gifted minds, using the 
largest opportunities, and all the previous accumu- 
lations of successive generations. And yet the 
boundaries of this knowledge have never been 
reached. Zeal, and industry, and love are still 
adding to the precious store ; volume after volume 
is composed, age after age adds its contribution. 
The beginning of all this knowledge, to which so 
few can attain, is in a few elementary truths which 
all may learn, and which the most ignorant can 
comprehend and act upon, just as well as the most 
gifted and the most learned. As Christianity is for 
the whole mass of mankind, to purify and save all 
alike, there is, as already shown, an a priori neces- 
sity for the conveyance to all, irrespectively of mind 
and cultivation, of those elementary and funda- 
mental truths upon which salvation depends. We 
have seen what the provision is for the satisfaction 
of that necessity. 

The whole history of redemption — all that por- 
tion of religious truth which could only be known 
by direct revelation — together with many other 
subsidiary and connected truths, is contained in the 
Holy Scriptures. These Scriptures are the Chris- 
tian Creed, says the new dogma of one of the new- 
est sects. But let us see. 

9* 



102 OLD A2sD XEW. 

Holv Scripture is a veiy large Trritten volume. 
To obtain a personal knowledge of its contents, there- 
fore, supposes that every man can read ; which, even 
at this day, is not true of the majority of people in 
Christendom. It is not only a large but a very mul- 
tifarious volume, composed of a great variety of 
books, with no necessary internal connection. To 
combine all the parts of this vast body of knowledge 
together, so as to perceive and apprehend the whole 
as one consistent body of truth, requires powers 
which we know to be far beyond the average capa- 
city and cultivation of the human mind. Tlie result 
is, that the body of the people universally receive as 
Scriptural truth whatever their preachers tell them 
that the Scriptures teach. The acquiescence with 
which this dictum of the preacher is received, is not 
affected at all by the show of appealing to the judg- 
ment of the congregation by an array of carefully 
selected texts in proof of his positions. Any advo- 
cate can prove his positions, if he is not to be con- 
tradicted. And if you will step across the way, you 
will hear another preacher proving a very different 
system just in the same manner, and with as strong 
an array of evidence. 

The people being thus necessarily dependent upon 
their preachers for a knowledge of what the Scrip- 
tures teach, those preachers again differ among 
themselves, by the same necessity, according to the 
variety of their powers of mind, and according to 
the extent of their learning. The only limit to this 
variety is, that all of them are unconsciously guided 
in theii* researches by that teaching of the Church 



THE BIBLE AS A CREED. 103 

which has happily pervaded and formed the mind 
of Christendom. 

We see, therefore, even as things now are, with 
the Bible printed, and accessible to most persons, the 
absolute necessity of some provision whereby the 
great, fundamental, and necessary truths, which all 
must learn and believe, should be conveyed more 
immediately and directly to each mind, of every 
class and condition, than could be done by the large 
and multifarious record of the revelation of the same 
truths which constitutes the Holy Scriptures. The 
Church, teaching the same truths in the beginning 
and continuously, is the only agency which could 
thus directly convey these fundamental truths, upon 
sufficient authority, to all estates and conditions of 
men. 

Wlien we look at the actual state of things which 
existed for fifteen hundred years after the establish- 
ment of Christianity, the necessity for this agency 
becomes even more apparent. Thousands, perhaps 
millions, had lived and died in the profession of the 
true faith, before the Church had been enabled to 
collect and clearly authenticate all the books which 
constitute the Canon of Scripture. And after they 
were collected, the price of one copy was more than 
the entire fortune of any one of the majority of those 
who called themselves Christians. The Christian 
professors therefore could not have procured a copy 
of their Creed, even if they could have read it ; and 
they could not have read it, even if they could have 
procured it ; which is a very complete reductio ad 
absurdum of the new dogma. 



104 OLD AND NEW. 

But the Churcli, in pursuance of the commission 
of her Lord, was teaching the Creed to all alike, 
through the ages all along, and appealing to the 
Scriptures for the ample proof, and the historic rec- 
ord, and the full illustration of the same. 



*? 



§ How THE Church Guides her Children. 

To proclaim, with authority and with power, this 
one faith^ to every redeemed soul, this Church is 
ever living, and ever present. Each Minister of this 
mystical body of Christ, in the remotest corner of 
the earth, speaks with the gathered authority and 
power of the whole body of the faithful in all the 
world, and in all the ages, when he recites and 
teaches that confession of faith which Apostles 
taught, and Martyrs died pronouncing, and which, 
through the ages all along, by every tongue, in every 
Christian congregation, in every generation, and 
now in all the world, is the one unbroken confession 
of the one hope of eternal life. The Church is ever 
living, ever present, to point, by her administration 
of the Sacraments which Christ instituted, to the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world ; 
and, by her one Baptism for the remission of sins, to 
put the seal of that forgiveness upon each humble 
and contrite soul who will come to receive it. The 
Church is ever living and present when she reads to 
her children, or puts into their hands the pure word 
of God which she tells them in its own beautiful 
language, " is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the 



HOW THE CHURCH GUIDES HEE CHILDREN. 105 

man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." 

The Church is living and present when her lawful 
Ministers stand forth as the commissioned Ambassa- 
dors of Christ, and proclaim, '' in His stead," this life- 
giving and hope-inspiring word, "Come unto Me, 
all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." And when the sin- sick soul accepts 
the gracious invitation, and comes, confessing his 
sins, and humbly sues to God for pardon and forgive- 
ness, the Church is then most truly and effectually 
present in power and authority, when her Minister, 
— the Ambassador of Christ — not merely announces 
the general message of salvation to the world, but 
tells to this one sinner, there kneeling in penitence 
and faith, the certain forgiveness of his sins, and 
assures to this man, by a visible seal and pledge 
intrusted to the Church by God Himself for that 
purpose, that he is truly incorporated into the body 
of Christ, is an adopted child of God, and an inher- 
itor of the kingdom of heaven. 

Millions have found, from this continuous and un- 
failing provision of the Divine Mercy, that " peace 
of God which passeth all understanding." And all 
the true peace and solid comfort which Romanists 
derive from their religion come from this same over- 
flowing fountain of living waters. All the peace 
and comfort and confidence which they profess to 
have received from any other source, — from thejpat- 
ronage of departed Saints, from the Indulgences of 
dead or living Popes, from the imparted holiness of 
relics, from " works of supererogation " performed 



106 OLD AND KEW. 

by the sinner or purchased from the Romish treasury, 
from " Mary the Refuge of Sinners " '' commaxdixg- 
HER SON," — all this peace is a delusion and a lie, of 
the Devil's propagation, devised by him to take away 
from religion its health-restoring power, and to bring 
the kingdom of God, as well as the World, under 
his own malign dominion. This has been his way 
from the beginning. Satan came into this world as 
a religious impostor, and established his kingdom 
here by invoking the name of God, and seducing 
men to seek a better way to heaven than the open 
one of believing and obeying the word of the Al- 
mighty. " God doth know," he said. And the 
communication sanctioned by this appeal to the 
Omniscient, is, ''Ye shall be as gods." (Genesis ii.) 

§ Popular Reaction from Sectarian Creeds. 

Here is an utterance, not from a book of Theology, 
but from the most popular and ambitious literary 
effort of this present year, 1860, which forcibly illus- 
trates the mischievous use that Satan has made of 
the failure to distinguish clearly and definitely be- 
tween the few and certain things necessary to be 
believed for salvation — the sufiicient bond of union 
between all Christians — and the vast body of reli- 
gious truth more or less nearly connected with these 
simple and fundamental truths. 

''They think that men will eventually come to- 
gether on the basis of one or two or more common 
articles of belief, and form a great unity. Do they 
see what this amounts to ? It means an equal divis- 
ion of intellect ! It is mental agrarianism ! A thing 



ETC. 107 

that never \vas and never will be, until national and 
individual idiosyncrasies have ceased to exist. The 
man of thirty-nine beliefs holds the man of one be- 
lief a ]3auper ; he is not going to give up thirty-eight 
of them for the sake of fraternizing with the other 
in the temple which bears on its front, ' Deo evexit 

Yoltairey^ '^ You cannot make a village, 

or a parish, or a family think alike, yet you suppose 
you can make a world pinch its beliefs or pad them 

to a single pattern!" "Do you know that 

every man has a religious belief peculiar to himself? 
Smith is always a Smithite. He takes in exactly 
Smith's worth of knowledge. Smith's worth of truth, 
of beauty, of divinity. And Brown has from time 
immemorial been trying to burn him, to excommu- 
nicate him, to anonymous-article him, because he 
did not take in Brown^ worth of knowledge, truth, 
beauty, divinity. He cannot do it, any more than 
a pint cup can hold a quart, or a quart pot be filled 
by a pint, ton is essentially the same everywhere 
and always ; but the sulphate of iron is never the 
same as the carbonate of iron. Truth is invariable; 
but the Smithate of truth must always differ from 

the £row7iate o{ truth." ''AH organized 

bodies have their limits of size, and when we find 
a man a hundred feet high and tliirty feet across the 
shoulders, we will look out for an organization that 
shall include all Christendom." 

It is melancholy to see the ingenious and appar- 
ently indissoluble mingling of truth and falsehood 
in this re]3resentation. And it is impossible to be 
angry with the thinkers who have compounded this 



108 OLD AND NEW. 

mixture, because we know that their error has been 
brought about by the long existence and the familiar 
contemplation of the very falsehood which they ex- 
pose and ridicule. They see very clearly the mis- 
take of the Sectarianism in which they were reared, 
in imposing a body of Divinity, either in or out of 
the Bible, as a Creed, to be consciously appre- 
hended and truly believed by the mass of mankind. 
The attempted imposition is simply an impossibility. 
Hence, first, unintelligent submission to human 
authority ; then sectarianism, — division and new 
organizations on the basis of elective affinities ; and 
now, at last, this terrible reaction, in which all faith 
and all objective truth are scornfully renounced, 
and religion is resolved into the present and passing 
opinions and fancies of each human being, deter- 
mined as these must be by -innumerable changing 
accidents of capacity, time, and opportunity. 

Even this new Gosj^el of the nineteenth century, 
oracularly published in the supposed capital of the 
world's intellect, contains an admission which comes 
very near to its own confutation. " Truth is inva- 
riable ; but the Smithate of truth must always dif- 
fer from the Brownate of truth." 

Now add to this truth a single admission, which 
it would not seem to be hard to concede, viz., that 
the Almighty knew this truth before it was discov- 
ered in Boston, and provided for it in the revelation 
of His Gospel, and we have all the materials for the 
full Catholic system which Christ ordained, and 
which the Church has practically held from the 
beginning. 



POPULAR REACTION, ETC. 109 

That God intended to have a Churcli — an organi- 
zation — into which all nations were to be intro- 
duced by Baptism, must be acknowledged, or the 
written Word must be entirely ignored. That this 
Baptism was to be into a Faith, is also very plain. 

Sectarianism defines this faith to be a number of 
elaborate and conflicting systems of Divinity, each 
of which is entirely beyond the common apprehen- 
sion of the masses of mankind, and therefore, 
vjhether true or false^ is unfit to be proposed to 
those masses as the Creed of mankind. And as 
these elaborate systems built by human ingenuity, 
even when of Divine materials, diff*er from one 
another as much as the Makers diff'er, there is an 
end at once both to the One Faith and to the One 
Body. For each separate body of Divinity, thus 
exalted into a Creed, must have its special Church 
or Body to represent and propagate it; until the 
whole thing runs itself out into the Boston scheme 
of every man being a Church to himself, and hav- 
ing a faith of his own. 

The Divine wisdom has anticipated and super- 
seded this stultifying and destructive process by a 
very simple method. It recognizes the great fact 
that ^' Truth is invariable,'' and, at the same time, it 
allows for the varying quantities of truth, which dif- 
ferent persons can receive according to their capaci- 
ties and opportunities, by gathering that truth into 
a very few great and comprehensive and easily 
apprehended Facts. The facts are proposed to all 
upon sufficient evidence, and may, therefore, be 
equally received by all. The confession of them in 

10 



110 



OLD AND NEW. 



ONE Baptism constitutes the One Faith and the 
One Body which Christ ordained. 

From these vast and comprehensive facts men 
may compose their systems of Divinity ; and here 
all the diversities of mind and character have room 
to operate and produce innumerable Smithates, 
Brownates, and other compounds of Divine truth 
with human errors and idiosyncrasies. But these 
compounds have no right to interfere with the Unity 
of the Faith, or with the Unity of the Body. 

To select out of the mass of Divine revelation 
those special facts, so simple and so few, and yet so 
vast and all-embracing as to include within them 
the entire circle of Divine and human relations, 
could be the work of no less than infinite wisdom. 

And here again we may contemplate and adore 
the wonders of that same infinite wisdom in so com- 
bining together this simple and essential faith, and 
the equally simple Sacrament of regeneration by 
which it is expressed, that human wilfulness and 
error, although full bent on the profane adventure, 
have never been able to disjoin them. 

It is known that for hundreds of years many 
bodies of Christians, of great power and influence, 
have been setting up independent standards of be- 
lief, outside of the one faith once delivered. On 
these they insist most earnestly. For these they 
contend, and out of these grow most of the bitter- 
ness and strife among Christians. Yet all this while, 
in manifest contradiction to the mind and intention 
of the parties, the Providence of God has so ordered 
that these very Christian bodies have continued to 



POPULAR PvEACTION", ETC. Ill 

baptize only into that one old and almost despised 
faith which was the only Christian symbol at the 
first. And now, when so many earnest people are 
looking about in distress and perplexity for some 
bond of nnion, and have often relinquished the 
attempt in despair, here is the very thing they need, 
in their own practice, on their own lips, plainly pre- 
served for them by the Providence of God Almighty, 
against their own former conceptions of propriety 
and truth. The grand and all-sufficient basis of 
Union is already in the possession of all those Chris- 
tian bodies who professedly open the doors of the 
kingdom of heaven by the initiatory Sacrament of 
Christ's institution, upon a simple profession of faith 
in the Apostles' or Nicene Creed. All that they 
have to dispense with, so far as unity of faith is 
concerned, is the previous ceremony and examina- 
tion by which they admit persons into their own 
narrow human corporations. 

Another pregnant sentence, from the same literary 
work from which the preceding extract was taken, 
will exhibit another phase of the reaction which a 
disregard of the old landmarks has provoked. 

" The active mind of the century is tending more 
and more to the two poles, Rome and Reason, the 
sovereign church or the free soul, authority or per- 
sonality, God in us or God in our masters." 

This dictum is capable of a true sense. If by 
Reason we understand that noble faculty which 
ever looks to its Divine Original as the Source and 
Fountain of light and knowledge, and reverently 
defers to every word of God, then the conflict of this 



113 OLD AND NEW. 

age is between Rome and Reason. But, alas ! the 
writer has taken pains to inform ns that the only 
Reason which he antagonizes to Rome is that bloated 
bundle of warrins: and ever-chano-ino; conceits, which 
denies the faith, rejects revelation, and spnrns at all 
real and practical authority of God. 

Between this mirage of the desert and the crush- 
ing despotism of the Papal Priesthood, this latest 
utterance of intellectual pride and folly places the 
human soul, hopeless and impotent, beating wildly 
around its prison bars, and crying, in agony, who 
will show us any good ? 

To shut men up to this very dilemma, is the earn- 
est effort and the highest art of the Romish Priest- 
hood. Romanism or Infidelity — the Pope or no re- 
ligion — is their assiduous cry. Here then are the 
advocates of two extremes of error, standing on the 
same platform, and pleading for the same pernicious 
falsehood, each in the interest of his own special 
form of untruth. 

Reject the provision that God has made for learn- 
ing, take away the testimony that He has given of 
Himself and of His love to men, and the tendency 
will be and must be to one or other of these two 
opposing developments of falsehood. And the ten- 
dency is, in fact, in these directions just in propor- 
tion as the true light has been hid, and God's abun- 
dant testimony to His truth has been ignored. But 
the real contest of this and of every age is not be- 
tween these two forms of error, but between Reason 
Divinely taught, and both of them. Reason heark- 
ens to the voice of God, however spoken, and wher- 



POPULAK REACTION, ETC. 113 

ever it may be heard, and, thus informed, knows in 
whom she believes, and finds herself in sweet and 
glorious harmony with the Saints of all ages — with 
the Church of the living God, from the beginning 
of the world until now. 

10'» 



CHAPTER X. 
the coreuption of religion satan's fayoeite work. 

§ All False Religions a Proof of this. 

The history of the world is a sad and bloody se- 
quel to the important fact stated in the last chapter. 
By a pretended improyement of religion, the Devil 
brought sin and death into the world. And when 
God revealed to His fallen creature the way of res- 
toration to holiness, and to eternal life, through 
Jesus Christ, the same Adversary has never ceased 
to employ all his power and influence over the nature 
he had seduced, to corrupt that religion, and so take 
away its capacity of producing holiness, that God- 
likeness, which is the condition of eternal life. The 
success of the Adversary in this enterprise furnishes 
the melancholy burden of all human history, and is 
witnessed by the universal prevalence of false re- 
ligions in the world. The only visible interference 
of the Almighty with the freedom of man in regard 
to these corruptions of revealed religion, is in the 
provision which He has made, constantly to main- 
tain the truth in the worlds as an external oljeet of 
faith^ clearly and svfficiently authenticated^ to the 
acknowledgment of which men might always turn 
from their idolatries and corruptions. We have 



THREE THAT BEAR WITNESS. 115 

considered, witli as mucli minuteness as the brief 
nature of this treatise will allow, the varied forms 
into which the Divine care has incorporated this 
saving truth. They are, The Scriptures, Tlie Sacra- 
ments, The one voice of the Catholic Church con- 
fessing the faith. It is by the concurrence of these 
testimonies, speaking alike to the heart and to the 
intellect of man, and telling the same truth in all 
ages and in all places, that every human being can 
come to the knowledge of the truth, with as much 
assurance and infallibility as the faculties of the 
honest inquirer are capable of. 

The Apostle St. John refers very distinctly to 
this Divine care for witnessing the truth to men by 
a concurrence of infallible witnesses : '' There are 
three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the 
Water, and the Blood ; and these three agree in 
one." 1 John v. 9. The Spirit beareth witness in 
the inspired record, the Holy Scriptures. The Spirit 
beareth witness in ''The Form of Sound AVords" 
which the Church prescribed in the beginning; 
and which, by the Divine care, she has prescribed 
in every successive age, in the midst of varying 
errors and corruptions, as the confession of faith to 
be made in Baptism. Tlie Spirit witnesses to this 
same truth in human nature, by making this faith 
to be the instrument of conforming that nature to 
the ideal set forth in the Bible as The Divine in 
man. The Water, in Baptism, consecrated by the 
invocation of the Holy Trinity to be the instrument 
of a new birth and a seal of the remission of sins, 
bears emphatic testimony to the same truth. The 



\ 



116 OLD AND NEW. 

Blood of Christ crucified, exhibited in the Eticha- 
ristic sacrifice, testifies in yet a different and more 
striking manner to the one only way of salvation. 

The contemplation of the fulness and glorious 
sufficiency of these combined testimonies, and their 
beauteous adaptation to the characteristics and 
requirements of human nature, makes sadly prom- 
inent the folly of those who defeat this Divine 
provision for our learning, by receiving the testi- 
mony of but one of these witnesses, to the neglect 
of the rest. Those who undertake to find their 
religion in the Bible alone, or in the chance utter- 
ances of the authorities of the present Church alone, 
or in the depths of the human consciousness alone, 
or in the Sacraments alone, must necessarily find a 
one-sided and imperfect religion, warped and per- 
verted by all the intellectual deficiencies, the moral 
obliquities, the passions and prepossessions, which 
belong inseparably to fallen human nature. 

§ The Papacy. 

The great corruption of Christianity, the master 
achievement of Satan, is his attempt to convert the 
kingdom of Christ, the Church of the living God, 
into an earthly monarchy, in which the souls and 
bodies of men should be subjected to a despotism 
more ciaishing and relentless than was ever essayed 
by any legitimate national government. To build 
up this stupendous fraud upon humanity, to con- 
summate this dire destruction of all that God had 
wrought for the salvation of the world, the Adver- 
sary has lavished all his resources of time, and op- 



THE PAPACY. 117 

portimity, and influence ; for eighteen centuries this 
has been his pleasant work. The thing to be ac- 
complished was, not the destruction of the Church, 
or of religion, but the corruption of the latter, and 
the invasion and permanent occupation of the 
former, so as to pervert both from their heaven- 
meant purpose, to be more effectual agencies than 
the world could furnish of his own destroying power. 

This Satanic scheme, resisted always by the Spirit 
and by the Providence of God, which impelled the 
Church to bear constant testimony to the truth in 
the Scriptures, in the Creed, and in the Sacraments, 
— resisted by the Divinely established nationalities 
which this system sought to crush or to control — 
resisted by all the nobler instincts and yearnings of 
regenerate humanity, — has been but partially suc- 
cessful. The history of this attempt, and of the op- 
po«^ition which it has encountered, is the history of 
most of the wars that have desolated Christendom, 
and of the human mind itself, in the fairest portion 
of the world. 

The older Churches of Christendom, the entire 
Eastern Church, never submitted to the degrada- 
tion of this malign despotism. Some of the strug- 
gling nationalities of the West terminated the long 
contest for independence by throwing off utterly, 
and, it is to be trusted, forever, at the period of the 
great Reformation, the horrid incubus of the Papal 
dommion. Others essayed by Concordats, and by 
domestic constitutions — such as the system desig- 
nated by the famous term, the Gallican liberties — 
to restrain and moderate the essential impiety and 



118 OLD AND KEW. 

iniqnitj of this despotism. These efforts at re- 
straint have been attended with Various degrees of 
success, and in proportion to that success have been 
the prosperity of the nation, and the dignity and 
happiness of the people. 

But however it may temporize, the Papacy never 
recedes. It never yields a principle or withdraws a 
claim. And so it has happened in the middle of 
the present century, when one of those strange re- 
actions of the human mind from skepticism to 
superstition, and from inordinate self-reliance to 
abject submission to authority, has suddenly occur- 
red, the Papacy boldly and promptly meets the con- 
juncture by putting forth pretensions, and exercis- 
ing dominion, which had been kept in abeyance, 
shrouded in darkness, and vociferously denied by its 
advocates for two hundred years before. So, now, 
the Galilean liberties, the religion of Bossuet, of 
Fenelon, and of all the most illustrious sons of the 
Romish Church, is, even in France, an acknowl- 
edged heresy, to be nnrelentingly persecuted and 
extinguished. 

Twenty years ago, the Komish authorities indig- 
nantly denied and industriously concealed the worst 
enormities of that stupendous system of priestly 
absolutism and of human degradation which the 
Papal Court has been forging for the nations for 
twelve centuries in the sacred and abused name of 
religion. For about two hundred years the awak- 
ened intelligence of mankind arrested tliis fatal pro- 
cess, and during the same period the real doctrines 
and designs of the Papal power were concealed 



THE PAPACY. 119 

from obserTation as far as possible ; and when ex- 
posed to view in the authentic form of decrees, and 
the actions foimded on them, the force of this dem- 
onstration was turned away, for the multitude at 
least, by the allegation that these were but the fol- 
lies and excesses of a barbarous age, and could 
never be renewed on the earth again. 

As soon as Christianity became a State religion, 
the ''mystery of iniquity" spoken of in the New 
Testament began to work mightily. Heathenism 
was then intruded with corrupting force into the 
bosom of the Church. Thenceforth the city of 
Rorae became the centre of a politico-religious 
organization, of which Christianity is indeed the 
firm and immovable substructure, but which, in its 
towering height of pride and ambition, is the 
stronghold, the impregnable fortress which covers 
and protects the agents of the direst conspiracy ever 
yet conceived against the rights, the liberties, and 
the happiness of mankind. 

This stupendous system has been built up gradu- 
ally and slowly by a succession of Italian princes, 
aided by the most skilful, cunning, and adroit of 
Italian courtiers, with ages to work in, and all the 
weaknesses, follies, and lusts of kings, and nobles, 
and people to work upon. The unchangeableness 
of Rome is this — that each new victory, each suc- 
cessful fraud and imposition becomes thenceforth a 
lixed and inalienable property of the Papal domin- 
ion. It is held and retained vv^ith inflexible and 
dogged determination, to be used, at the proper 
time and opportunity, as a new and more advanced 



120 OLD AND KEW. 

point of attack upon other rights and other interests 
of mankind. At some period of awakened intelli- 
gence, or of just and healthful feeling among the 
nations, it has often been found expedient by these 
watchful conspirators to cover up and conceal from 
general observation their most valuable acquisitions. 
But they are never relinquished, never abandoned. 
Rome, in this respect, is imchangeable. 

But Home is progressive as well. She is never 
satisfied with her present power. With ever-burn- 
ing lust for dominion, and with undying enmity to 
truth, to God, and to the human race, she reaches 
forward for new conquests over reason, humanity, 
and right. We have spoken of a long rest in this 
career of aggrandizement and usurpation. But the 
sudden revival and portentous supremacy in our 
day of the most extravagant claims of ultramontane 
Romanism — that is, the Romanism of the Court of 
Rome as distinguished from the milder Romanism 
of France and of the other cis-Alpine nations — the 
formal promulgation in the nineteenth century of a 
new article of Christian faith and of a new condi- 
tion of salvation — the revival of old and the manu- 
factm-e of new, frivolous, and degrading supersti- 
tions, with which to delude and enslave the masses ; 
and now, in this present year of grace, the claim of 
the Pope — not merely asserted, but carried into 
actual execution by the flagitious robbery of a child 
from his parents — to supersede and make null and 
void, in the name of religion, the first and highest 
law of nature and of God ; — all these facts concur 
to prove that Rome is essentially progressive, going 



THE PAPACY. 121 

forward to the entire subjugation of all human 
right, liberty, and nobleness. 

The varied agencies by which this tremendous 
organization works its wdll are admirably adapted 
to their purpose. 1. The stultification of the human 
mind by the imposition of gross and impossible arti- 
cles of belief. 2. The degradation of reason and of 
religion alike, by the substitution of base and child- 
ish superstitions for Divine truth and for the reason- 
able service of God. 3. Tlie invention of a Purga- 
tory as the sole punishment to be feared by the 
faithful^ and the assertion tliat the measure and 
duration of that punishment are under the exclusive 
control of the Priesthood. 4. The intrusion into 
every part of the social body of Christendom of the 
agents of this association, a corps of Janissaries, iso- 
lated from all human sympathy and communion by 
an enforced celibacy, and bound firmly together 
and to the central throne by this separation from 
the rest of their kind, and by solemn oaths, and 
fearful penalties, and the pressure of the strongest 
passions of the human soul yet left to them. 5. The 
confessional, which gives to this army of Janissaries 
the key of the human heart, and enables each mem- 
ber of the corps to enter into the very inmost soul 
of his victim, and exercise unbounded control there 
over his thoughts, passions, and purposes. 6. Tlie 
consummate art with which the subject of this 
malign dominion is soothed, indulged, flattered, and 
propitiated by the accommodation of religion to his 
own peculiar temjDcr, fancy^ and disposition. This 
supple and wily power has learned to furnish a 

11 



122 OLD AND NEW. 

charm and a resource to the sentimental and to the 
practical, to the gay and to the severe, to the profli- 
gate and to the moral, to the sensuous and to the 
intellectual. It has been the work of ages to pre- 
pare and accumulate these lulling and pleasing lux- 
uries for the soul, as well as to extend and consoli- 
date the terrific despotism which they help to rec- 
ommend and to sustain. 

It is not merely for the direct influence of this 
imposition in subverting the truth of God, that the 
Adversary nurtures it as his favorite and most suc- 
cessful device. Its indirect agency in serving the 
cause of evil is far more extensive and lamentable. 
The direct tendency of its claims and its superstitions, 
is to debilitate the soul and enshroud it in darkness. 
As the powers and faculties of men are diminished, 
so is their responsibility lessened. And the simple 
piety, therefore, of the worshippers of St. Joseph and 
St. Mary, of the pilgrims to the Holy Coat of 
Treves, and to the new miraculous fountain in the 
south of France ; the attractive faith working by 
love, of those best Missionaries of the Romish 
Church, the sisterhoods of Charity, of Mercy, &c., 
who so devoutly believe in Purgatory and in Indul- 
gences, and try to lessen their term of imprisonment 
in the former by working for the latter ; — all these 
may eflfectually plead their ignorance for excuse, and 
be accepted in the Beloved, inasmuch as they yielded 
themselves to be led by the Spirit, according to 
their knowledge. 

But the indirect influence of this system, in con- 
fusing the ^limits between truth and falsehood ; in 



THE PAPACY. 123 

producing and perpetuating those violent and de- 
structive reactions, which are the bane and the 
reproach of Protestantism ; in nurturing infidelity 
and atheism, by inducing the moderately enlight- 
ened masses to entertain for all religion the indiffer- 
ence or contempt which are due only to the drivel- 
ling superstitions and the pernicious errors which 
have been compounded with the truth ; — this is the 
. portentous evil which the Papacy has wrought, and 
is still successfully performing, which justly entitles 
it to be called, as the old Reformers called it, the 
Devil's Masterpiece. Doubtless, as long as Satan 
is at large, and is permitted to be the Prince of this 
world, he will never allow this elaborate instru- 
mentality of evil, so skilfully contrived, and so 
patiently constructed through long ages of unre- 
mitting effort, to be destroyed. To encounter this 
and all other complicated problems of Divine and 
human relations, is a part of the intellectual and 
moral discipline assigned to man by his Creator. 



CHAPTEE XL 

the iviaterials, divine and human, out of which 
the papacy was built. 

1. The Christian Ministry. 

Our Saviour instituted a Ministry as a part of the 
organization of His Church. The advocate of Christ's 
institution stands between two extremes of error on 
this point, as on so many others, hecause men have ds- 
parted from the truth ifi opjposite directions. One class 
maintains that Christ established a universal mon- 
archy, with the plenitude of power vested in a single 
man, as the constitution of His Church. Another 
class contends that He left His Church without a 
Ministry. The Facts will lead us to the truth which 
lies between these two conflicting assertions. 

The Church of God had long possessed a Ministry, 
scrupulously arranged by the Divine care into sev- 
eral orders. But when Christ came, it was necessary 
to adapt the Church to its new relation, as the 
Church of all nations. Therefore, a single temple, 
and a single High Priest, and the restriction of the 
Priesthood to one family, and of Sacrifice to one 
place — institutions adapted to the purposes of the 
temporary Mosaic economy — were all done away 
with. But there was at least an equal necessity for 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 125 

order and good goYernment, for mature wisdom and 
conservatism, in the later as in the earlier economy. 
Therefore, the higher functions of tlie Priesthood, 
and the chief oiBces in the government of His king- 
dom, were committed by the Saviour to a Ministry 
chosen and set apart by Himself from the body of 
the faithful. This Ministry was carefully constituted, 
with a regular gradation of order and office. Instead 
of the one High Priest, of the Jewish regime^ the 
plenitude of ecclesiastical power was conferred upon 
a very small but indefinite number, capable of gradual 
enlargement with the enlarging hounds of Christy's 
hingdom^ so that the Church might he planted every- 
where in its fulness and entirety. Subordinate to 
this chief office there were two other permanent 
orders of ministers. Presbyters and Deacons, corre- 
sponding to the Priests and Levites of the Mosaic 
economy ; no longer confined to a single family and 
tribe, but composed of all such as the Holy Ghost 
might call from the universal family of man. 

It is easy to test each of these systems by the 
inspired record. To whom did the Saviour commit 
the fulness of ecclesiastical power ? To one man ? 
To the whole body of his disciples? To all who 
were ordained to any ministry? Look and see. 
Tlie blessed Saviour inaugurated this Ministry of 
His Church by an act of protracted and extraordi- 
nary devotion, well calculated to impress us with a 
sense of the importance and far-reaching conse- 
quences of this appointment. " And it came to pass 
in those days, that He went out into a mountain to 
pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 

11* 



126 OLD AND NEW. 

And when it was day, He called unto Him His dis- 
ciples : and of them He chose twelve, whom also 
He named Apostles," '^ And He sent them to preach 
the kingdom of God" (St. Luke vi. 12, 13 ; ix. 2) ; 
and said, " He that receiveth you, receiveth me ; 
and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent 
me" (Matt. x. 40). 

"After these things the Lord appointed other 
seventy also, and sent them two and two before his 
face, into every city and place whither he himself 
would come." And to these also He said, " He that 
heareth you, heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, 
despiseth me ; and he that despiseth me, despiseth 
him that sent me." (St. Luke x. 1, 16.) Thus were 
laid the foundations of a polity expressly called by 
our Saviour, in the act of doing it, a kingdom. Here 
is a regularly organized society, with constituted 
officers not only, but with a minutely arranged and 
carefully distinguished gradation of offices. This 
organization continued until after the Shepherd was 
smitten and the sheep were scattered. Hitherto the 
Church had been confined to one small country. 
Now it was to be extended into all the world. Did 
our Lord permit His Church then to cease as a visi- 
ble kingdom? Or did He take any measures to 
continue it as an organized society, and so to change 
its organization as more effectually to adapt it to its 
new condition as the Church of all nations ? Let us 
see what answer to these questions the facts give us. 

Just before his crucifixion, in evident anticipation 
of their future mission, after He had washed the dis- 
ciples' feet. He said, " He that receiveth whomsoever 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 127 

I send, receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me, re- 
ceiveth him that sent me." (St. John xiii. 20.) 

After his resurrection, when the disciples were 
assembled together, Jesus stood in the midst and 
said, " Peace be unto you : As my Father hath sent 
me, even so send I you. And when he had said 
this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Re- 
ceive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye 
remit, they are remitted unto them : and whoseso- 
ever sins ye retain, they are retained." (St. John 
XX. 21-23.) And just before his ascension He gave 
to the eleven Apostles that plenary commission 
which conveyed at once the fulness of power, and 
the assurance of perpetuity in its exercise by them 
and their successors in office. '' All power is given 
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, 
and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you : and lo, I am with you al- 
way, even unto the end of the world." (St. Matt, 
xxviii. 18-20.) 

The two extremes of error now prevalent in the 
world, the fiction of a universal monarchy, and the 
notion that Christ left no Church, or left it without 
Divinely appointed offices, are alike disproved by 
these testimonies of the record. The attempt to bol- 
ster up the universal monarchy by certain figurative 
expressions, addressed to St. Peter upon certain oc- 
casions, is refuted by this one fact — that when we 
give to these figurative expressions the highest pos- 
sible meaning, they cannot be made to express a 



128 OLD AND KEW. 

higher power than is coiiYeved in these plain and 
unquestionable words to the whole College of the 
Apostles. If, therefore, Christ intended by those 
figurative expressions to establish a monarchy in 
the person of St. Peter, He was not the author of 
Order but of confusion, contrary to the express 
words of St. Paul, and to the dictate of right rea- 
son. That our Saviour did not intend to make His 
kingdom such a Babel of confusion and of conflict- 
ing jurisdictions, is shown by the special circum- 
stances under which the words addressed to St. Pe- 
ter were spoken. These circumstances give a full 
and ample meaning to those words without impi- 
ously charging upon the Head of the Church this 
gross and fatal inconsistency. 

One of the most remarkable of these metaphorical 
addresses to St. Peter, was obviously desimed as a 
restoration of the Apostle to the position among his 
brethren from which he had fallen by his disgrace- 
ful apostasy. TTith great care the charge to Peter, 
expressing one only of the duties of the Apostolic 
oflice, is made parallel to Peters denial, so as to 
connect the two together forever in his memory; 
and all in these metaphors which was not satisfied 
and concluded by the occasion on which they were 
spoken, was, according to the concurrent testimony 
of the Fathers, spoken to all the Apostles and to all 
Pastors, in the person of St. Peter. 

The possible interpretation of such passages, as 
conferring upon one of the Apostles the least official 
superiority over his colleagues, had been distinctly 
negatived and sternly rebuked by our Lord, upon 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 129 

the only occasions when the question of gradation 
in rank among them was ever raised. While the 
minds of the Apostles were yet in darkness, and 
their hearts were yet carnal, they did several times 
agitate among themselves this question, Which of 
them should be greatest ? Even during the solemni- 
ties of the last Supper, there was " a strife among 
them" about this question. Tliey certainly did not 
know who should be greatest, although they had 
heard nearly all the addresses to St. Peter now re- 
lied upon as the institution of this universal mon- 
archy in the world. But the answer of Christ to 
their selfish and ambitious thought is, in every 
instance, an emphatic denial, not merely of a uni- 
versal monarchy as the constitution of His earthly 
kingdom, but the denial of the least superiority of 
one over another. (See St. Matt, xviii. 1-4 ; St. 
Mark ix. 33-35 ; St. Luke xxii. 13, 14, 24-30 ; St. 
Matt, xxiii. 8.) 

That the Apostles did so understand the nature 
of Christ's kingdom, and of their authority in it, 
after they were enlightened by the Holy Ghost, is 
certain, for they everywhere talk and act as equals. 
The only instance of superiority exhibited in the 
Acts of the Apostles, is in the Presidency of St. 
James in the first General Council at Jerusalem; 
but this is manifestly because he was specially ap- 
pointed to be the resident Bishop of that See, the 
true and only Mother Church. The only recorded 
instance of submission among the Apostles, was 
occasioned by the misconduct of the supposed uni- 
versal monarch, St. Peter. He having injuriously 



130 OLD Amy kew. 

dissembled in a point of vital consequence to the 
purity of tlie Gospel, was publicly rebuked by St. 
Paul, and meekly submitted to the rebuke, like a 
good Christian, conscious of having done amiss. 

So utterly baseless and foolish is this pretence of 
St. Peter's monarchy, that the Divine record fur- 
nishes even another positive disproof and negation 
of it. For St. Paul distinctly affirms, that '' the 
Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto 
me, as the Gospel of the Circumcision was unto 
Peter." (Gal. ii. 7-9.) And the same Apostle, in two 
several Epistles, enumerating the gifts and offices of 
the Church, places "^ First, Apostles ;" not one Apos- 
tle, but all, and none above them — neither office 
nor dignity — neither place nor honor, above theirs. 
(1 Cor. xii. 28 ; Ephes. iv. 11.) 

That this organization of His Church by our Lord 
was not a mere temporary arrangement, but was 
designed to be perpetual, is certain. The great 
commission to the Apostles, contains in itself the 
promise of perpetuity, for their office, at least, and in 
their office the same promise for the whole Church. 
Accordingly, we find not only the Apostles on earth, 
but their glorious Head in heaven, making provis- 
ion for the perpetuation of the Apostolic office. The 
vacancy made by the fall of Juclas, is filled by the 
election of Matthias. Christ Himself appears to 
call and ordain St. Paul, who says that he received 
his office " not of man, or by man," but by an im- 
mediate external call and comviissioii from Him 
who sent the Apostle unto the Gentiles, '• to open 
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 131 

and from the power of Satan unto God." (Gal. i. 1 ; 
Acts XX vi. IT, 18.) Presently we find St. Barnabas, 
and at a later period, Silas, Timotliv, and Titus, as- 
sociated by the Apostles in the same work, author- 
ity, and title of office with themselyes. 

We hear no mention made of the appointment of 
Presbyters in the Church of Jerusalem ; for the 
Seyenty ordained by our Lord were already there. 
But we haye a particular account of the appointment 
of Deacons; and, in all subsequent notices of the 
Church, we find the Apostles, Elders, and Deacons 
referred to as its usual and well-known officers. 

Tliat these offices were of Diyine appointment 
there is abundant eyidence, not only from the fact 
of their actual appointment by those who were 
Diyinely inspired for the manifestation of the will 
of God, but from numerous notices of the nature of 
these offices in yarious portions of The TTord. Under 
the former economy, the Almighty says of the false 
Prophets, '^ I haye not sext these prophets, yet they 
ran." (Jer. xxiii. 21.) St. Paul, aj)plying this language 
to the Ministers of Christ, says, "How shall they 
preach except they be sent ?" (Rom. x. 15.) And 
with a pointed reference to the sanctions by which 
the Diyine commission to the sacred office of the 
Priesthood had been guarded under the Mosaic dis- 
pensation, he says, " And no man taketh this honor 
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was 
Aaron: so also Christ glorified not himself to be 
made an High Priest ; but he that said unto him, 
Thou art my son, to-day haye I begotten thee." 
(Heb. y. 4, 5.) The meaning is, that The Head of the 



132 OLD AND NEW. 

Church, would not take upon Himself the public 
exercise of His Ministry, until that Ministry was 
publicly authenticated by an external call, of which 
the people could take cognizance, thus adopting and 
consecrating, in the very initiation of the Christian 
Church, that principle of the Divine wisdom which 
had constituted and guarded a Mixistry in the 
earlier Church. 

In the close of this Epistle, the Aj)ostle twice re- 
peats an injunction which has no meaning, except 
upon the supposition of a Ministry of Divine appoint- 
ment and perpetual obligation: ^' Remember them 
which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto 
you the word of God." " Obey them that have the 
rule over you, and submit yourselves ; for they 
watch for your souls, as thev that must give account." 
(Heb.xiii.V, ir.) 

In the Epistle to the Corinthians, he says, " Let 
a man so account of us, as of the Ministers of Christ, 
and stewards of the mysteries of God." (1 Cor. iv. 1.) 
God ''hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. 
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
God did beseech you by us." (2 Cor. v. 18, 20.) 

In the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, the Apostle 
gives the most minute directions as to the qualifica- 
tions and appointment of two of these orders of the 
Ministry, Bishops (called also, interchangeably. Pres- 
byters), and Deacons. The Apostle clearly assumes, 
throughout both Epistles, that Timothy and Titus 
had equal authority with himself to ordain to both 
of these offices. They therefore exercised an office 
above them both; and, in fact, we find that 



THE CHRISTIAN MIKISTRY. 133 

they are often called Apostles. The testimony of 
Theodoret and other Fathers gives ns the sufficient 
reason why the title Apostle was discontinued by 
those who succeeded to their ordinary jurisdiction, 
and one of the titles of the second order. Bishop, 
assumed in its stead. 

With this organization in full operation, and with 
the Church already planted in the whole civilized 
world under this organization, the Canon of Scripture 
closes. The first opening of ecclesiastical history, 
after the age of the Apostles, shows us this same 
constitution of the Church as a settled and estab- 
lished order. The only perceptible change is one of 
title, and the reason of that change has been pre- 
served to us by those who made it. The successors 
to the ordinary power and jurisdiction of the 
Apostles, as a mark of distinction to those who 
had been so named by Christ Himself, gradually 
dropped its application to themselves, and appro- 
priated to their order the title Bishop, which had 
sometimes been used convertibly with Presbyter, to 
designate the second order of the Ministry. 

Among all the changes of ecclesiastical arrange- 
ment, these three orders of the Ministry alone have 
been perpetuated, as of Divine institution, by the 
appointment of the Universal Church. For each of 
these three orders the whole Church, everywhere 
and at all times, has required a distinct and solemn 
ordination. JBut no ordination is 'required or allowed 
to any other office in the Church of God, 

This Ministry has been continued in unbroken 
succession to our day. It is strange to find any in- 

12 



134: OLD AND NKW. 

telligent people sneering at the idea of a succession 
in the Christian Ministry. As long as a body politic 
continnes, there mnst be a continuity of offices and a 
succession of officers of some sort. While the Eepnb- 
lic of Home lasted, there was a succession of Consuls. 
While the government of the United States lasts, 
there will be a succession of Presidents. The fact of 
a regular succession of Christian Ministers is involved 
in the admission of the continued existence of the 
Church itself, and of the Christian religion, since the 
first publication of Christianity. 

It is often seriously but most illogically objected 
that this succession cannot be proved. No more can 
the regular rising of the Sun every day since the Cre- 
ation be proved l>y the sort of testimony in the con- 
tem]3lation of this objection. An established order 
once instituted hy an authority cor)ipetent to originate 
and sustain it^ and yet seen to he in effectucd ojpera- 
tion^ proves its own intermediate existence^ until the 
objector can shov: when it ceased to be. Therefore we 
know that the Sun has risen every day since that 
" great light " was first placed in the firmament '' to 
rule the day." And by the same reason we know 
that the Christian Ministry in its Divinely ordained 
degrees has never failed. 

All the early Christian writers recognize this 
essential constitution of the Church, and especially 
the equal authority of the Bishops, as the Succes- 
sors of the Apostles. And you can hardly open a 
page of secular history after the general planting of 
Christianity in the world without finding a plain 
recognition of the three orders of the Ministry. St. 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 135 

Cyprian describes the condition and nature of the 
Episcopate in the year 250, precisely as we see in 
the New Testament that the Apostolic office existed 
in the first age. '' The Episcopate is One. It is a 
WHOLE, in which each enjoys eull possession. The 
Church is likewise one, though she be spread abroad, 
and multiplies with the increase of her progeny ; 
even as the sun has rays many, yet one light." 
" This unity firmly should we hold and maintain, 
especially we Bishops, presiding in the Church, in 
order that we may prove the Episcopate itself to be 
one and undivided." " For although we are many 
Shepherds, yet we feed one flock." (Treatise on 
Unity, Sec. 4., Epis. 68.) 

2. Metropolitan and Patriarchal Authority. 

Before St. Cyprian's day a new dignity had been 
created in the Church, of which that illustrious 
Father was himself a sharer, but this did not interfere 
w^ith the essential unity of the Episcopate and the 
equality of the Bishops. As an expression of that 
Unity, and for the more orderly transaction of the busi- 
ness of the Church, the Bishop of each civil Metrop- 
olis of the Empire was made the central authority 
for all duties of the Episcopate requiring concert 
of action in the region subject to that Metropolis. 
This was simply an expedient and economic arrange- 
ment, imitated by all religious and secular bodies in 
this country, who appoint some central Board, Sec- 
retary, or other authority, in the principal Cities. 
The increasing complication of the afiairs and in- 



136 OLD AND NEW. 

terests of the Church, and, perhaps, the ambition of 
the greater Prelates, led, upon the same grounds of 
expediency and convenience, to the establishment, 
at a later day, of a still higher dignity, — the iiv^e 
great Patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople, Alex- 
andria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The Metropolitan 
was the convenient primate of a province, and the 
Patriarch, of several provinces, for the orderly con- 
duct of those ecclesiastical affairs which required 
concert of action. The Ninth Canon of the Coun- 
cil of Antioch explains the whole matter as to the 
first of these dignities. 

"It behooves the Bishops in every province to 
own him who presides over the metropolis, and who 
is to take care of the whole province : hecaitse all 
who have business come together from every side to 
the metrojjolis. Wherefore, also, it has been decreed, 
that he should have a precedence of rank, and that 
the other Bishops should do nothing of consequence 
without him, according to the ancient canon which 
we have received from our fathers." 

It may be considered as evidence of a secular and 
worldly spirit of carnal pride, already infesting the 
Church, when the question of precedency and pri- 
macy of honor was first raised among these succes- 
sors of fishermen and tent-makers. The new civil 
dignity and consequence bestowed upon Constanti- 
nople by the first Christian emperor, developed this 
spirit in a contest between the Bishops of Rome and 
Constantinople for this precedency. The unholy 
dispute was temporarily settled by the second gen- 
eral council, An. 381, by this canon: "The Bishops 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTEY. 137 

of Constantinople shall have tlie primacy of honor 
after the Bishop of Kome, because that Constant! 
nople is new Rome." The Emperor Jnstinian re- 
affirmed the same decision. '' We decree, according 
to the decision of the canons, that the most holy 
Archbishop of the elder Eome should be altogether 
first of all the priests, and that the most holy Arch- 
bishop of Constantinople, which is new Rome, should 
have the second rank after the most holy Apostolic 
throne of the elder Rome, and should be honored 
before all others." 

That the fathers of this Council knew of no other 
primacy than one of honor is certain, for the second 
canon enacts that " the Bishops must not go beyond 
their dioceses and enter upon churches without their 
borders, nor bring confusion into their churches, but, 
according to the canons, the Bishop of Alexandria 
Tiiust have the sole administration of the aifairs of 
Egypt, and the Bishops of the East must administer 
the East only." 

The fourth general council. An. 451, gives the 
same account of the origin and use of the patriarchal 
authority, and of the respective rank of the prelates. 
The twenty-eighth canon of that council says : '' For 
the fathers properly gave the primacy to the throne 
of the elder Rome, hecause that was the imperial city. 
And the one hundred and fifty most religious bish- 
ops, being moved with the same intention, gave 
equal privileges to the most holy throne of new 
Rome, judging, with reason, that the city which 
was honored with the sovereignty and senate, and 
which enjoyed equal privileges with the elder royal 

12* 



138 OLD AND NEW. 

Rome, slionld also be magnified by lier in ecclesias- 
tical matters, being the second after her." 

To show the spirit in which this whole arrange- 
ment of the Chnrch was observed and maintained by 
the early Christians, and to exhibit, at the same 
time, the working of that nnholy lust of power 
which endeavored to pervert this arrangement into 
the instrument of gratifying a worldly pride and 
ambition, I will recite part of the eighth canon of 
the Council of Ephesus (An. 431). The Bishop of 
Antioch had undertaken to extend his patriarchal 
authority over the island of Cyprus. After rebuk- 
ing this "innovation which has been introduced 
contrary to the laws of the Church and the canons 
of the holy fathers, and which afi'ects the liberty of 
all," the canon goes on generally to declare : " The 
same rule shall he observed in all the other dioceses 
and in the provinces everywhere^ so that none of the 
most religious bishops shall invade any other prov- 
ince, which has not heretofore, from the beginning, 
been under the hand of himself or his predecessors. 
But, if any one has so invaded a province and 
brought it by force under himself, he shall restore 
it, that the canons of the fathers may not be trans- 
gressed, nor the pride of secular dominion ie privily 
introduced under the appearance of a sacred office^ 
nor we lose, by little, the freedom which our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the deliverer of all men, has given us 
by his own blood." 

What a prophetical commentary is this upon the 
series of usurpations by which the bishops of Rome 
contrived to take away the freedom of the Western 



wester:n" empire broken. 139 

Churches ! Availing themselves of the disorders of 
the empire, and of their position in the imperial city, 
skilfully using the ignorance, the superstition, and 
the factious divisions of the barbarians who overran 
the West, these proud and politic prelates gradually 
consolidated an empire more potent and more per- 
vading in its influence than that which the barba- 
rians had overturned. 

That this power was gradually accumulated, and 
that many of those who did most to push it forward, 
never dreamed of aspiring to the proud and blas- 
phemous elevation which their successors attained, 
let the strong and emphatic language of the first 
Gregory testify. In the progress of the increasing 
power and pretensions of the two great patriarchates, 
Rome and Constantinople, the Bishop of the latter 
See assumed the title of " Universal Bishop." Greg- 
ory earnestly remonstrated, declaring that this title 
was proud, profane, and sacrilegious. " I speak it 
confidently," says Gregory, " that whosoever calleth 
himself Universal Bishop, or desireth to be so called, 
in the pride of his heart, doth forerun Antichrist." 
Such is the unqualified testimony of the greatest of 
the Bishops of Rome against Papal Supremacy. 

3. Destruction of the Western Empire by a num- 
ber OF barbarian and rival chieftains. 

After the final overthrow of the Roman empire in 
Italy, and in all the countries West and North of 
Italy, a most extraordinary state of things is pre- 
sented to view. The conquered peoples were refined, 
learned, politic, and effeminate; their conquerors 



140 OLD AND XEW. 

rude, illiterate, barbarous. On account of the dis- 
orders, robberies, and murders of sucli a transition 
state, tlie most cultivated portion of the conquered 
nations sought for security in the Priesthood of the 
Christian Church, which in its turn had conquered 
the barbarian conquerors. Here then was an oppor- 
tunity for the establishment of Priestly dominion, 
the like to which had never been seen before. The 
Sacerdotal Order, monopolizing the learning, art, 
and intellectual power of the West, having the true 
religion for their credentials, and the base of their 
operations, with full opportunity to graft upon it 
just as much of superstition and craft as they deemed 
expedient, had nothing to encounter but rudeness, 
ignorance, and simplicity. Can we wonder that 
they accomplished so much? Is not the wonder 
more legitimate that they accomplished so little — 
that they did not more thoroughly degrade and sub- 
due the European mind ? With any race less stern 
and intellectual than these ]^orthern conquerors of 
the empire, this last would have been the inevitable 
result. 

Besides this one general fact, leading to the un- 
healthy establishment of Priestly dominion, there 
were subsidiary circumstances which helped forward 
that consequence, and tended to the concentration 
of that dominion in the Roman Patriarchate. 

Of the five Patriarchal Sees among which, as we 
have seen, the whole Church was partitioned, with 
a few exceptions, such as Cyprus and Britain, the 
Roman Patriarchate was the only one in all this 
conquered Western portion of the empire. It was, 



WESTERN EMPIRE BROKEN. 141 

therefore, without a rival in its legitimate claims, 
and in its illegitimate pretensions, in all this vast 
region. Besides the Patriarchal authority, the civil 
government of the City and Territory of Rome was, 
during these confusions, often exercised by the 
Bishop, thus enhancing his spiritual power by all 
the prestige of the traditional greatness of the Im- 
perial City — the Mistress of the world. 

And the Priesthood, in the little kingdoms and 
principalities founded by the barbarians, were not 
unwilling to call in aid all the actual and ideal 
majesty and power of the Roman See, to assist them 
in subduing the sturdy and rebellious spirits so re- 
cently converted to the faith. If the perpetual 
exercise of the jurisdiction thus sought, encouraged, 
and rewarded, had not engendered in the hearts of 
the Roman Bishops an inordinate lust of dominion — 
a reckless and distempered ambition — it would have 
been a miracle of grace which has never yet been- 
exhibited in this world. 

Add to all these sources of power and influence 
the complete ascendency of the Feudal principle in 
Europe, both in Church and State, the Pope being 
the acknowledged Feudal superior of the Spiritualty, 
with such an indefinite claim to temporal dominion 
as might be conveniently enlarged or diminished 
according to the chances of time, character, and 
opportunity. 

These elements of power gradually formed 
around the Papacy an Italian Court, trained in sub- 
tlety, artifice, and diplomacy, as the ready and 
supple instrument with which to manage the com- 



142 OLD AND NEW. 

plicated relations of this newly established European 
society, and mould it into a form most consonant 
with ecclesiastical interests and pretensions. 

Must we not admire the elasticity and sturdy 
vigor of the European mind, which did not sink 
down palsied and impotent, beneath the force of all 
these evil influences ! Instead of that result, the 
usurpations of the Papacy were met everywhere by 
an obstinate and constantly renewed opposition. 
The principal triumphs of this malign power were 
achieved by playing oflF the ambition and selfish de- 
signs of rival chieftains against each other. The 
Papal Court was always ready, and more than will- 
ing, to throw the whole weight of its spiritual and 
temporal influence into the cause of that Chieftain 
who would bid highest for such assistance. And 
the history of these intrigues and their consequences 
is a large part of the history of Europe. Tlie Roman 
Court, by keeping steadily in view for a long course 
of ages its gigantic scheme of universal domination, 
by balancing dexterously between contending fac- 
tions in the State, by lending aid to a foreign foe, 
or by withdrawing that aid at a critical moment, was 
enabled very often to break down all the resistance 
wliich national honor and natural right opposed to 
the usurpations of the power which played so skil- 
fully upon the passions, the prejudices, and the 
superstitions of the age. 

We have now seen all the materials out of which 
the cupidity of earthly ambition constructed that 
tremendous Papal authority, which for so many 
ages overshadowed the whole of Western Christen- 



WESTERlsr EMPIRE BROKEN. 143 

dom, and required for its removal the agitations of 
the great Keformation. 1. The spiritual power of 
every Bishop, by Divine right, to judge every Chris- 
tian, and to admit him to his own communion, or 
exclude him from it. Tliis action of any one Bishop, 
if sustained hy his hrethren, admits to, or excludes 
from the whole Church. This Divinely conferred 
jDower of every single Bishop might be exercised 
individually, or by the agency of provincial and 
general Councils, or by the representative power of 
Metropolitans and Patriarchs. 2. The dignity and 
j)recedence due to the great Apostolic See of the 
AVest. 3. The Patriarchal power actually confer- 
red by Canon upon the Pom an Bishop. 4. The 
substitution for the Poman empire of a number of 
small and rival kingdoms, ruled over by untutored 
barbarians, within the limits of this Patriarchate. 
5. Tlie natural influence of the holder of spiritual 
and temporal power in the Imperial City. 6. The 
establishment of the Feudal system as the para- 
mount law in all the relations of society. 7. To 
these we may now add, the free and unscrupulous 
employment by the Priesthood of those miscalled 
spiritual but truly carnal weapons, fraud and super- 
stition. 

]^o act of power and jurisdiction exercised by the 
Bishops of Rome, and submitted to by the Church, 
can be shown for the first six hundred years, which 
is not referable to one or the other of those legiti- 
mate sources of authority first above mentioned. 
And all that was done in this regard by the Poman 
Bishop within that period was done likevjise upon 



IM OLD AND NEW. 

the like occasions hy the other Patriarchs, All tlie 
power subsequently exercised by the Eoman Bishop, 
beyond that of the Patriarchs, his Colleagues, was 
usurped, by means of that combination of influ- 
ences which are above enumerated. And that all 
the power of the Patriarchs, which exceeds that of 
every other Bishop, is of human and not of Divine 
origin, is proved, not only by the history of their 
jurisdiction, but by the fact already mentioned, that 
neither Pope nor Patriarch, titles used convertibly to 
designate the same dignity, ever received ordination 
or consecration to that office. Ordination is essen- 
tial to make a Deacon ; another ordination is neces- 
sary to make a Presbyter ; and, again, a third to 
make a Bishop. But a Bishop of the smallest See 
can be made a Metropolitan, Pope, or Patriarch, 
without a new Ordination. The Church thus plainly 
showed from the beginning that no Divine authority 
heyond the power of the Episcopate was challenged 
or pretended for these offices. The Episcopacy is 
the highest office in the Church ever conferred hy this 
Divinely instituted chaniiel of grace and power. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE PAPACY IN ENGLAND. 

There is some reason in Scripture and in ancient 
writings, for believing that the great Apostle of the 
Gentiles planted Christianity in Britain. Certainly 
it was firmly established there at a very early day ; 
for in the Council of Aries, in the year 314, the Brit- 
ish Church was represented by three Bishops, and 
two Presbyters. After the conquest of a large por- 
tion of the island by the Saxons, and the consequent 
prevalence of Paganism in the conquered territory, 
Gregory, at the instance of Bertha, the Christian 
wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, sent Augustine at 
the head of a mission, to the Saxons. The success 
of this mission enabled Gregory to establish his 
authority, as Patriarch, in Britain. This was the 
extent of his claim ; but even that claim was unjust, 
for it is apparent that the island had not before 
been included in his Patriarchate. Like the island 
of Cyprus, it had remained outside of the jurisdic- 
tion of any Patriarchate, subject only to its own 
Bishops and Metropolitans. The claim of Gregory, 
therefore, was in direct contravention of the 8th 
Canon of the Council of Ephesus (a. d. 431), before 
cited. Tliat the persecuted remnant of the Free 

13 



146 OLD AXD XEW. 

Britisli Cliiircli so regarded this claim is certain. The 
French historian, Thierry, thus relates the incidents 
connected with this affecting portion of the history 
of the British Chnrch : 

'• The Britons had Bishops ; bnt they were, during 
the greater part of their time, without any fixed see. 
They dwelt, like true pastors, sometimes in one 
place, and sometimes in another ; and their Arch- 
bishop, chosen by themselves, likewise lived indif- 
ferently, at Caer Leon, on the Usk, or at Menew, 
now St. David's. This Archbishop, independent of 
all foreign authority, neither received nor solicited 
the pallium. 

" Augustine, by an express message, communi- 
cated to the Clergy of the vanquished people of 
Britain the order to acknowledge him as their sov- 
ereign Archbishop, on pain of incurring the anger 
of Rome and the anger of the Saxons. That he 
might demonstrate to the Cambrian priests the 
legitimacy of his imperious demand, he assigned 
them a conference on the banks of the Severn, the 
limit between their territory and that of their con- 
querors. Tlie meeting was held in the open air, 
under a large oak." The answer of the Britons is 
calm, dignified, and simple : " We will never ac- 
knowledge the pretended rights of Roman ambition, 
any more than those of Saxon tyranny. We owe to 
the Pope of Rome, as to all Christians, the submis- 
sion of fraternal charity ; but as for the submission 
of obedience, we owe it only to God, and, after God, 
to our venerable superior, the Bishop of Caer Leon, 
on the LTsk. Besides, we ask, why have those who 



THE PAPACY m ENGLAND. " 147 

boast of liaring converted the Saxons, neyer repri- 
manded them for tlieir violence against us, and their 
usurpations over us?" (A. Thierry, vol. i., p. 68.) 

This historian, in anothei- place, continues : " The 
successors of Augustine extended their ambitious 
pretensions to the Priests of the island of Erin, who 
were as independent as the Britons of foreign su- 
premacy, and so zealous for the Christian faith, 
that their country was called the Island of Saints. 
To the men of Erin they sent messages full of pride 
and bitterness. ' We, deputies from the Apostolic 
See to the AVestem regions, once foolishly believed 
in your Island's reputation for sanctity ; but we now 
know, and can no longer doubt, that you are no bet- 
ter than the Britons. Of this, the journey of Colum- 
ban into Gaul, and that of one Dagammon, in 
Britain, have fully convinced us ; for, amongst other 
things, this Dagammon, passing through the places 
where we dwelt, has refused not only to come and 
eat at our tables, but even to take his meals in the 
same house with us.' " 

No proposition, therefore, can be more certain 
than that down to the year 600, the British Church 
was entirely independent of Rome, and owed to the 
Bishop of that See no other subjection than was 
due from her to every other Bishop in Christendom. 

The British and Irish missionaries subsequently 
performed a most important part in the conversion 
of the Saxons in the northern and middle counties 
of England. Augustine converted two of the seven 
Saxon kingdoms, and fully established the Eoman 
Patriarchal power tliere. But Wales, Cornwall, 



148 OLD AND KEW. 

Cumberland, Ireland, and Scotland, were still in 
possession of the ancient Christian inhabitants. It 
is certain that the great kingdoms of Mercia and 
Northumbria were converted by missionaries from 
the various parts of the ancient Church of these 
islands^ but princi]3ally from lona, in Scotland. 
" Indeed, only two counties north of the Thames, 
viz., Norfolk and Suffolk, can be said to have been 
subjected to Roman direction during the transition 
from Paganism to Christianity ; and those two were 
largely indebted to domestic zeal for their conver- 
sion. Every other county, from London to Edin- 
burgh, has the gratification of pointing to the ancient 
Church of Britain as its nursing mother in Christ's 
holy faith." The present Sees of Durham and 
Lichfield, were founded at this time by Aidan 
and Duma. The former was at first called Lindis- 
farne. Churton says, that ^' the Scottish Bishops of 
Lindisfarne seem to have taken the steps that most 
eflfectiially led to the establishment of Christianity 
in the hearts of the people. The Italian missiona- 
ries do not appear to have ordained many of the na- 
tive Saxons to the ministry. Tlie Scottish Church- 
men, on the contrary, being less anxious to prolong 
their own mission than to make Christians of the 
S-axons, began very soon to associate natives of tlie 
country with tliem in their labors." 

This infusion of ancient British feeling, and the 
increasing sense of nationality among the SaxDns 
themselves, together with the exorbitant demands of 
the Papacy in its growing lust of power, gradually 
led to a result, which is thus described by Thierry : 



THE PAPACY IN ENGLAND. 149 

"The good understanding between the Anglo- 
Saxons and the Church of Rome, or rather the 
subjection of tlie former to the latter, was not of 
very long duration. The spell of imagination grew 
weaker, and the shame of dependence became grad- 
ually felt. While some kings bowed their heads 
before the representative of that Peter who opened 
and shut the door of heaven, there were others who 
openly rejected the yoke of the foreigner, plausibly 
disguised under the name of the Christian faith. In 
this contest, the Priests of the Saxon race — the spir- 
itual children of the Romans, declared at first for 
Pome, but afterwards, borne away by the torrent of 
national opinion, they aimed at being no longer sub- 
ject to the ultramontane Church, except in those 
fraternal duties which the British Christians had 
offered to render her, and which in her name they 
had so rudely disdained. Then did the English 
become in the eyes of Rome what the Cambrians 
had been ; she was their violent enemy, and leagued 
herself with their enemies. She encouraged foreign 
ambition against them, as she had encouraged their 
own ambition against the native population of Bri- 
tain. She furnished their invaders with the same 
banners of the Cross which she had given them to 
display ; she promised, in the name of St. Peter, their 
goods and their bodies to whoever would conquer 
their country ; and since they had ceased to be her 
tributary subjects, she endeavored to make them 
slaves who would pay her tribute." (A. Thierry, 
Book i., p. 90.) 

Tlie simple Patriarchal authority which the Bish- 



150 OLD AND NEW. 

ops of Rome unwarrantably extended over the great- 
er portion of England previous to the Xorman con- 
quest, was rapidly developed after that event into 
the portentous Supremacy that has ever since been 
claimed. But even the l^orman Princes soon found 
it necessary to protect the national interests against 
this grasping and shameless power. '^ In 1245, the 
King, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the 
whole commonwealth of England, unanimouslj^ 
complained that the Pope extorted more than his 
Peter-pence, contrary to law, that strangers were 
preferred, souls endangered, the kingdom impover- 
ished, provisions made, pensions exacted — that the 
English were drawn out of the realm by the author- 
ity of the Pope, contrary to the customs of the king- 
dom. They complained of ' the coming among them 
of the Pope's infamous messenger {71071 ohsta7ite)^ by 
which oaths, customs, writings, grants, statutes, 
rights, privileges, were not only weakened, but ex- 
inanited.' Thev sav, ' unless the kino; and kino-dom 
be quickly freed from these grievances, we must 
make a wall of defence or partition for the house of 
the Lord, and the liberty of the kingdom, which we 
have hitherto forborne to do out of our reverent 
respect of the Apostolic See.' " (Cited from Math. 
Paris, by Bramhall, p. 98.) 

To redress this intolerable load of mingled eccle- 
siastical and temporal grievances, those ancient laws 
of P7'ovisoi's and PrcE7nu7iire were passed, and oc- 
casionally strengthened by additional penalties. The 
first statute against Papal provisions, Sir Edward 
Coke tells us, was passed in the reign of Edward I. 



THE PAPACY IN ENGLAND. 151 

(An. 1272), and was the foundation of all tlie subse- 
quent statutes of Praemunire, and tliat tliey were all 
originally framed for the express purpose of encoun- 
tering the overgrown yet increasing evil of the Papal 
usurpations. 

These statutes, so hateful to the Popes, were con- 
tinued in every successive reign, being occasionally 
made a little sharper and stronger, down to the Ref- 
ormation, and were the chief instruments with which 
the Princes of England resisted the Papal encroach- 
ments. '^ Tliis, then," says the illustrious commen- 
tator on the laws of England, " is the original mean- 
ing of the offence which we call Pro^inunire^ viz. : 
introducing a foreign power into this land, and cre- 
ating imperiuvi in imjperio by paying that obedience 
to Papal process which constitutionally belonged to 
the king alone, long before the Reformation in the 
reign of Henry VIII., at which time the penalties 
of praemunire were indeed extended to more Papal 
abuses than before, as the kingdom then entirely 
renounced the authority of the See of Rome, though 
not all the corrupted doctrines of the Roman 
Church." (Blackstone's Com., B. iv., Ch. 8.) 

The contest between national honor and interest 
on the one hand, and Priestly fraud and popular 
superstition on the other, was waged with various 
success, but with diminishing force of resistance on 
the part of the countrj^, until the reckless libertinism 
and the exacting tyranny of the usurping power, 
met by the increasing intelligence of the people, 
produced the uprising of the Reformation. The 
distinguished Jurist above quoted, gives us an ac- 



152 OLD AND NEW. 

count of one of the incidents of that contest which 
should always be kept in memory, as illustratiye of 
the real pretensions of the Papacy, and of the estab- 
lished policy by which those pretensions haye been 
enforced wheneyer opportunity occurred. 

" And to sum up this head," says Justice Black- 
stone, "with a transaction most unparalleled and 
astonishing in its kind, Pope Innocent III. had at 
length the effrontery to demand, and King John had 
the meanness to consent to, a resignation of his crown 
to the Pope, whereby England was to become for- 
ever St. Peter's patrimony ; and the dastardly mon- 
arch reaccepted his sceptre from the hands of the 
Papal legate, to hold as the yassal of the Holy See, 
at the annual rent of a thousand marks." 

The wicked diplomacy, the long and complicated 
series of intrigues, the sacrilegious employment of 
sacred instrumentalities for the accomplishment of 
this wonderful result, form an instructiye commen- 
tary upon the essential character and the necessary 
operations of the Papal Supremacy. The nation 
was laid under an interdict, the King excommuni- 
cated and deposed, Philip of France urged to the 
invasion and conquest of England, and promised for 
this seryice, '^hesides the remission of all his sins, 
and endless sjpiritnal henejits^ the property and pos- 
session OF THE KINGDOM OF England." Then followed, 
the secret accommodation of the Pope with the das- 
tard monarch thus driyen to extremity, the betrayal 
of Philip after he had incurred all the expenses of 
his expedition ; and, to crown all, the attempted 
protection of the infamous John against the efforts 



THE PAPACY m ENGLAND. 153 

of the people of England to wrest from liim tlie 
Magna Charta of English liberty ! 

Is this the institution of Christ which w^e must 
sacredly preserve ? Is this universal spiritual mon- 
archy, trampling upon the nations — playing with the 
consciences, the rights, and the liberties of man- 
kind — the Divinely appointed Ministry with which 
the Saviour said that He would be " always, even to 
the end of the world ?" 

Did the expulsion of this malign power from 
England destroy the identity of the present Church 
of Christ in that country with the Church which He 
caused to be planted there in the earliest ages of 
Christianity ? On the contrary, is not the successful 
effort by which the Church and people of England 
threw off this monstrous and degrading tyranny, 
and reasserted, in part at least, the liberty where- 
with Christ had made them free, a signal verifica- 
tion of this very promise of Christ that He would be 
alway with His Church, to save it at all times from 
destruction^ to purify it when corrupt^ and to relieve it 
when oppressed? By the power of this Divine Pres- 
ence it was that the Church was enabled to preserve 
her identity — the essentials of her being and constitu- 
tion, her One Faith, her Divinely Ordained Minis- 
try AND Sacraments — through all the vicissitudes 
and conditions of a long succession of ages, against 
the combined powers of earth and hell. It is the same 
indestructible body of Christ wdiich was strengthened 
and purified by the rage of heathen persecutors, 
enervated and corrupted by the blandishments of 
imperial power, overwhelmed in the flood of bar- 



154 OLD AND NEW. 

barian ignorance, oppressed by Papal and Royal 
ambition, and carried through the fiery ordeal of a 
reformation of the abuses ^which centuries of wrong 
and superstition and violence had accumulated. 

It is unhappily true, that even down to our time 
the Church is not, in any part of the world, except 
in this our own favored land, entirely free from all 
taint of connection with the Civil State. Here 
alone is she in this particular pure and undefiled, 
witnessing to the truth of her Divine foundation, 
and to the faithfulness of her ascended Lord. 

It is more than probable that the strong govern- 
ments of the old world, checking and restraining 
within necessary limits the power of the Priesthood, 
while using that power for their own purposes, are 
maintained by Divine Providence, to prevent the 
utter destruction of religion and the entire subjuga- 
tion of the human mind by Priestly usurpation, 
until the peoples become sufficiently intelligent to 
comprehend, and strong to profess and maintain the 
truth as it is in Jesus. Upon this most probable 
supposition all the hopes of the world for the enjoy- 
ment of civil and political freedom depend upon the 
progress of the nations in religious knowledge, and 
in the capacity to receive and profess the true faith 
of the Gospel, undefiled by human admixtures, 
unsupported by Satanic impostures. Solemn and 
overwhelming, therefore, are the responsibilities of 
our country, as the exemplar and the teacher of the 
nations. No wonder that Satan employs in this 
land, against religion and against the republic, all 
the manifold resources of liis power. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE REFORMATION. 

Papal abuses grew in the Churcli of England as 
elsewhere, liTi:e thrifty weeds hi a fertile garden. 
They grew so rankly that, if they had not been 
removed, true religion must at last have been smoth- 
ered and destroj^ed. For two hundred years the 
awakening mind and heart of Europe cried out for 
a reformation. The most illustrious Divines of 
those centuries gave to this cause their energies 
and their efforts. Even Popes sometimes promised 
reformation ; but the Papal Court always managed 
to defeat it. Hear what Pope Adrian says in 1522. 
'' AVe know that for some by-past years many things 
to be abominated have been in this Holy See, 
abuses in spiritual matters, excesses in commands, 
and, to conclude, all things out of order^ &c., 
wherein, for so much as concerns us, thou shalt 
promise that we will use all our endeavor, that first 
this Court, from whence jperadventare all the evil did 
spring^ may be reformed ; that as corruption did 
fiowfrom thence to the inferior parts ^ so may health 
and reformation. To procure which we do hold 
ourselves so much more strictly obliged, by how 
much we do see the whole vwrld greedily desire such 
a reformation.'^'^ (Cited by Bramhall, p. 104.) 



156 OLD AND NEW. 

Eaiike lias familiarized to general readers of his- 
tory the scandalous intrigues by which the un- 
worthy successors of this Pope defeated this desire 
of the whole world for a reformation. It is notori- 
ous that the Spanish, French, and German members 
of that very Council of Trent which most emphati- 
cally organized the Papal Sect, as such, on the basis 
of the reception of the pojmlar corruptions as apart 
of thefaith^ went into that Council with a determi- 
nation to reform abuses. But they were wearied 
out, and all their efforts frustrated by the artifices 
and diplomatic intrigues of the Pope and his Italian 
retainers. From 1542 to 1562 were the sessions of 
this Council protracted, for the purpose of hindering 
all healthful reform. At last, Italian finesse and 
Papal ambition triumphed over every better feel- 
ing. The whole action of the Council was settled 
and agreed upon by a political compact between 
the Pope, the Emperor, and the Kings of France 
and Spain. (See Eanke's " History of the Popes," 
passim.) 

Thus was fastened upon the fairest portion of 
Europe the intolerable burden of political and reli- 
gious bondage, from which the oppressed nations 
have vainly tried, by convulsive throes and by rev- 
olutionary excesses to be relieved. Even now this 
oppression, like a horrid nightmare, sits upon the 
bosom of these nations, and their cry of agony is 
heard throughout the world. 

By the good hand of our God upon us, it was 
ordered otherwise for England and for America. 
Divine Providence employed the passions of Henry 



THE KEFORMATIOJSr. 157 

VIII. to aid most effectually this good work, by 
removing first the Papal Supremacy.* All the 
estates of the realm, in Chnrch and State, concur- 
red in this necessary measure. Long before this 
poisonous weed had been planted in Britain, the 
General Council of Ephesus had provided the rem- 
edy for the evil. " Xone of the most religious Bish- 
ops shall invade any other province, which has not 
heretofore, from the beginning, been under the hand 
of himself, or of his predecessors. But if any one 
has so invaded a province, and brought it by force 
under himself, he shall restore it, that the canons of 
the fathers may not be transgressed, nor the 'pride 
of secular dominion he privily introduced under the 
appearance of a sacred office^ nor we lose hy little the 
freedom which our Lord Jesus Christy the deliverer 
of all men^ has given us hy his own hlood. The holy 
and ecumenical Synod has therefore decreed that 
the rights which have heretofore, and from- the be- 
ginning, belonged to each province, shall be pre- 
served to it pure and without restraint, according to 
the custom which has prevailed of old." 

The free Church of the British Isles was thus in- 
vaded, as we have seen. Continually the subjects 
of tliis tyranny struggled against its harsher exac- 
tions, but they were seldom successful, until they 
availed themselves of this great statute of relief ^ this 
Magna Charta of Ecclesiastical liberty, which 
the Church had provided in the year 431. Under 
this beneficent statute the British Church reasserted 
the freedom which for six hundred years she had 
enjoyed without let or question. 

14 



158 OLD AND NEW. 

The Eeformation went no further in the reign of 
Henry. His imperions will was just the sort of in- 
strument which could most effectually drive out the 
appalling Papal despotism. That accomplished, 
and his work was done. Under the mild sway of 
the pious Edward, the rulers of the Church care- 
fully and thoroughly purged out from her all super- 
stitions, novelties, and false doctrines. Again, un- 
der Elizabeth, of glorious memory, the disorders 
introduced by Philip and Mary were remedied, the 
banished Bishops and Ministers restored to their 
Sees and Benefices, the Sees made vacant by apos- 
tasies to Rome or otherwise, filled by the consecra- 
tion of suitable persons, and all things reinstated in 
due and proper order. 

Our Lord represents His Church as a Yineyard, 
and He calls His Ministers, husbandmen sent into 
the Vineyard to dress and to keep it. Does it de- 
stroy the identity of a vineyard to pluck up the 
noxious weeds which are monopolizing the strength 
of the ground? Our Lord calls His Church a 
Body. Does it destroy the identity of a body to 
cure its disorders? Our Lord calls His Church a 
Kingdom. Does it destroy the identity of a king- 
dom to reform abuses? He calls His Church a 
Sheepfold. Does it destroy a sheepfold to drive 
out from it the wolves and foxes ? Our Lord calls 
His Church a temple. Does it destroy a Temple to 
sweep and cleanse it ? So was the Lord's Vineyard 
weeded, and the Lord's Temple cleansed by the Eng- 
lish Eeformation. 

The Pope did not submit to the loss of this rich 



THE KEFOEMATION. 159 

dependency without making " continual claim" by 
fulminating a Bull of Excommunication and Depo- 
sition against Elizabeth. The Bull begins by stating 
the authority by which it is pronounced. 

" He that reigneth on high, to whom is giv^en all 
power in heaven and in earth, hath committed His 
one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, out of 
which there is no salvation, to one alone upon earth, 
namely, to Peter, the chief of the Apostles, and to 
Peter's successor, the Bishop of Rome, to be by him 
governed with plenary authority. Him alone hath 
he made prince over all people and all kingdoms, 
to pluck up, destroy, scatter, consume, plant, and 
build." ''Being, therefore, supported with His au- 
thority, whose pleasure it was to place us (though un- 
able for so great a burden) in this supreme throne of 
justice, we do, out of the fulness of our apostolic power, 
declare the aforesaid Elizabeth as being a heretic and 
favorer of heretics ; and her adherents in the matters 
aforesaid, to have incurred the sentence of excom- 
munication, and to be cut off from the unity of the 
Body of Christ. And, moreover, we do declare her 
to be deprived of her pretended title to the kingdom 
aforesaid, and of all dominion, dignity, and privilege 
whatsoever; and also, the nobility, subjects, and 
people of said kingdom, and all others who have in 
any sort sworn unto her, to be forever absolved from 
any such oath, and all manner of duty, of dominion, 
allegiance, and obedience ; and we also do, by 
authority of these presents, absolve them, and do 
deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended title to 
the kingdom, and all other thino-s before named. 



160 OLD AND NEW' 

And we do command and charge all and every the 
noblemen, subjects, people, and others aforesaid, 
that they presume not to obey her, or her orders, 
mandates, and laws ; and those which shall do the con- 
trary, we do include them in the like anathema."* 

Simultaneously with the publication of this Bull, 
the Pope tried hard to induce the kings of France 
and Spain to assist in its execution by the invasion 
of England, and his emissaries were sent throughout 
the realm to excite the subjects of this foreign Prince 
to rebellion a2:ainst their native sovereio-n. These last 
were rather too successful for the prosperous issue of 
the whole scheme. For the more fanatical Romanists 
commenced an insurrection under the Earls of North- 
umberland and Westmoreland, before the foreign 
agents of the Holy See were ready for the projected 
invasion. This rebellion being speedily put down, 
the deluded victims of this false religion were in a 
sad case. If they obeyed the Pope they were hung 
for treason, and if they obeyed the civil government 
they were damned by the Head of their religion. 
This hard dilemma being pathetically represented at 
Rome, gave rise to the following action there : 

"Faculties granted to the two Fathers, Robert 
Parsons and Edward Campian, for England, the 
14th of April, 1580. Let it be asked or required of 
our most holy Lord the explication or meaning of 
the Bull declaratory made by Pius the Fifth against 
Elizabeth, and such as do adhere to or obey her, 

* See the admirable work of Dr. Seabury, "The Continuity of the 
Church of England," for a full and exhaustive historical account of the 
papal Supremacy. 



THE REFORMATION. 161 

wliicli tlie Catholics desire to be understood in this 
manner, that tlie same Bull shall always bind her and 
the heretics, but the Catholics it shall by no means 
bind, as matters or things do now stand or be, but 
hereafter, when the public execution of that Bull 
may be had or made." The conclusion is thus given : 
''The highest Pontiff or Bishop granted these afore- 
said graces to Fathers Robert Parsons and Edward 
Campian, who are now to take their journeys into 
England the llrth day of April, in the year of our 
Lord, 1580, being present the Father Oliverius 
Manarke, assistant." (Seabury, p. 101.) 

This command to destroy the Protestant govern- 
ment of England, coupled with the '' grace" vouch- 
safed to the Papal subjects that it should not he 
hinding on them until opportunity occurred^ has not 
to this day been revoked, cancelled, or withdrawn. 
Its author, Pius Y., was canonized, a. d. 1712. It 
has been frequently renewed by successive Popes, 
and it stands now as valid as ever, to bind all par- 
ties, '' hereafter^ when the public execution of that 
Bull may he had or madeP This claim to universal 
dominion, and this attempt to exercise that domin- 
ion were made, not in the dark ages, but in the most 
glorious day of European learning and literature. 
American Romanists have not been allowed by *their 
teachers to believe that such a claim is now or ever 
has been made : and speaking only from their own 
honest consciousness of wdiat ought to be, they are 
indignant when such a monstrous crime against hu- 
manity is charged upon the head of their Church. 
But the facts of history to this effect are patent, and 

11* 



Ifi2 OLD AND NEW. 

cannot be resisted, except by those wlio will not see ; 
and the current acts of the same power in our day 
are to the same effect and equally conclusive. Past 
history and present observation concur to prove that 
the Papal power claims, by Divine right, supreme 
and uncontrolled dominion over the souls and bod- 
ies of all men, and that it has dispensed in all the 
avenues of social life an innumerable array of sworn 
retainers, to give practical effect to this claim. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

AS STATED BY ITSELF. 

The Papal Monarchy is not a religion. It nses 
the Christian religion as the basis of its operations. 
And to that religion it has joined many falsehoods 
and abject superstitions with which to play upon the 
human mind. These combined agencies it uses as 
tlie instruments of establishing: a dominion more 
defiant of God and man, of Divine and human right, 
than the world has ever seen. It is not necessary 
to go back to tlie age of Hildebrand for the assertion 
of this dominion. We have just seen it put forth in 
the strongest terms by a Eomisli Saint in the age of 
Bacon, of Shakspeare, and of Hooker. Only a few 
years before a Predecessor of this Pope had sum- 
moned Henry YIII. to appear within ninety days 
at Rome, either in person or by proxy, and stand to 
the judgment of that court ; and in case of refusal, 
the kingdom is placed under an interdict, the sub- 
jects are commanded to withdraw their allegiance, 
and to drive the king out of his dominions, and all 
foreign Princes are exhorted to undertake a Holy 
War against him and his abettors. And just a little 
before this excommunication, the Pontiff, bestowing 
flatteries upon Henry, says, " We, the true Succes- 
sor of St. Peter, presiding in this Holy See, from 



164 OLD AND NEW. 

whence all dignity and titles have" their Source." 
The great Roman champion, Bellarmine, says, " That 
to restrain obedience due to the Pope unto matters 
appertaining only to the soul, was to reduce it to 
nothing." 

All the continental nations, cheated out of a ref- 
ormation by the political compact which made the 
decisions of the Council of Trent, have since tried in 
vain to make Romanism a mere religion, or a super- 
stition, and not a political power in the State. This 
was the ideal of the so-called " Galilean liberties," 
always opposed by the Popes, and so long and per- 
sistently maintained by the great lights of the French 
Church. But the iron logic of the real Papal sys- 
tem — called, in contrast with the former, Ultramon- 
tanism — has defeated and disarmed its antagonist. 
The Ultramontane syllogism is simple and severe. 
The Pope is the sole fountain of all spiritual power. 
Tlie spiritual is superior to the civil authority. The 
Pope is the sole and infallible judge of the limits 
of each. 

A strong monarchical government can place some 
arbitrary barrier to the legitimate working of this 
stern logic. But what will be its influence in a 
popular government, where the Priests have sway, 
has recently received an instructive illustration. 
Louis ISTapoleon needed the popular vote of France, 
for the establishment of the " empire." The Pope 
had 40,000 sworn agents in France, and they could 
control one million of votes. Such is the statement 
of M. About, a Romanist, and the most distinguished 
French writer of this day. Well, to secure these 



THE PAPAL MONARCHY. 165 

million of votes, the old Gallican liberties must be 
sacriticed. The Abbe Prompsaiilt, the latest cham- 
pion of those liberties, says : '' Every book which is 
not according to the Ultramontane doctrine, is de- 
clared to be bad. They require on the spot that it 
shall be placed in the ' Index.' Every Priest who 
has- the misfortune not to be an Ultramontane, is 
marked as a wolf in the sheepfold." 

This publication brought down upon the Abbe a 
storm of indignation. The denunciations against 
him are, that he is '' an audacious sectary, scarce- 
ly diflerent from a Protestant ;" that " with Bos- 
suet, and Saint Sulpice, he is the maintainer of a 
Church without a Head ;" that his doctrine is " full 
of error and -malice," "contrary to the Catholic 
faith," " worthy of condemnation," and " certain to 
be placed in the ' Index.' " Accordingly, in June, 
1855, the Abbe's book was placed in the "Index ;" 
and the Abbe himself had to give up his work in 
Paris, and to retire from active employment. 

How comes it that Ecclesiastics and Laymen are 
permitted to teach doctrines in America, which 
are sternly denounced by the Eomish authorities in 
Europe ? This question is answered by one article 
of the Concordat lately concluded between tlie Pope 
and the Emperor of Austria. This memorable 
transaction establishes the Ultramontane system in 
the Austrian empire, with this one temporary reser- 
vation in behalf of the civil authority. The thir- 
teenth article of the Concordat says : " In consider- 
ation of the times^ the Papal Chair Consents that 
the j^'^rely temjyoral affairs of the Clergy — such as 



166 OLD AKD NEW. 

the right of property, debts, and inheritances — shall 
be examined into and decided ii]3on in temporal 
courts." 

Thus the government of Austria avowedly accepts 
as a gracious concession from the Papal Court a 
large part of its civil jurisdiction, that essential 
attribute of independent sovereignty. And this 
concession by the Papacy is made as a mere tempo- 
rary grant, " hi consideration of the thnes^^ revoca- 
ble at pleasure. The policy of the Roman Court in 
abstaining for the present from the exercise of 
the wliole of its Divine rights, is thus identified 
with the same policy exhibited in " the Faculties 
granted to the two Fathers, Robert Parsons and 
Edward Campian, for England ;" and is, undoubt- 
edly, the principle on which that Court administers 
its American possessions. '' In consideration of tlie 
times!'^ Papal advocates were licensed to sow folly 
and confusion in the realm of England, as Independ- 
ent and Anabaptist preachers, in former times. For 
the same consideration, Romish Advocates in Amer- 
ica are permitted to inculcate " Gallicanism" as the 
true doctrine of the Romish Church. 

But how is it that the civil governments of Eu- 
rope, which formerly maintained the independence 
of their respective nationalities against the crushing 
despotism of legitimate Popery, are now acting as 
the agents of that power against their people ? The 
answer furnishes a new illustration of the utter in- 
compatibility of the Papal monarchy with human 
right and human progress. 

The spread of knowledge, in Europe, has raised 



THE PAPAL MOKAKCHY. 167 

the great middle class of society — all those who 
stand between the 2:overnino^ order- and the dreo^s of 
tlie population — to a just sense of human right, to 
an earnest love of liberty, and to an equal detesta- 
tion of the tyrannies by which they have been so 
long oppressed. To prevent the natural consequences 
of this diffusion of knowledge and of this sense of 
right in the great body of the people, the ruling 
Dynasties have formed alliances, offensive and de- 
fensive, w^ith the Papacy. For the surrender of 
national independence by the governments, the 
Papacy undertakes to employ its army of supple 
and obedient Priests to put down liberty and to 
perpetuate oppression and misrule, by operating 
upon the ignorance and superstition of that lowest 
stratum which is yet a tremendous force in the city, 
in the country, and in the army. Is this malign 
autocracy, the essential antagonist of freedom, of 
knowledge, and of humanity, the appointment of 
Christ — the ordinance of the Almighty? Every 
healthful feeling of the human soul — conscience, 
reason, religion — answer, no. Satan, the Accuser, 
the Deceiver, the Enemy of God and man, is the 
author and the chief supporter of this system. {See 
Note^page 284.) 

]^ext in authority to a Papal decree, in ascertain- 
ing the real claims and pretensions of the Papal 
monarchy, is the teaching of the most learned and 
orthodox Doctor of that communion, the celebrated 
Bellarmine. B[is language is a plain and ample 
commentary upon the words and acts of his mas- 
ters. He says : " We maintain that the Pope, as 



168 OLD AND NEW. . 

Pope, lias the supreme power of dis]30sing of tlie 
temporals of all Christians. 

"The civil power is in subjection to the spiritual 
power, since each is a part of the same Christian 
republic. The Spiritual Prince, therefore, has the 
power to rule temporal Princes, and to dispose of 
temporals; for every Superior has the power of 
command, of government over his inferiors." 

" That political authority, not only as it is Chris- 
tian, but as it is Political, is subject to ecclesiastical 
authority, as such, is a thing that can be demon- 
strated." 

" Christians have no right to tolerate an Infidel 
or Heretic Sovereign, if he take any step to lead his 
subjects into his heresy or infidelity; and it is for 
the Pope to judge whether or not he is doing so. 
For to the Pope is committed the care of religion ; 
and, consequently, the Pope it is that must judge 
whether or no a sovereign is to be deposed." 

"As to the early Christians, if they did not de- 
pose Nero and Diocletian, and Julian, the Apostate, 
and Yalens, the Heretic, and the like, it was be- 
cause they had not the physical force to do so,^^ 

" Why may not a faithful people be set free from 
the yoke of an unfaithful (heretic) Sovereign, who 
is leading them into infidelity (heresy), when a faith- 
ful (Romanist) wife is free from the obligation of 
remaining with her unfaithful husband, if he will 
not dwell with her without injustice to her faith, as 
Innocent HI. clearly deduces from Paul ? (1 Cor. vii.) 

" The Church (of Rome) would be guilty of too 
grievous an offence, if she were to allow any sever- 



THE PAPAL MONARCHY. 169 

eign who might choose to foster a sect with im- 
punity, to protect heretics, to overthrow religion 
(Popery) !" (Cardinal Bellarmine, " De Rom. Pon- 
tif.," Y. 7.) 

'' And, to come down to later authorities," says 
Pascal the Younger, " than those of Bellarmine and 
Clement VI., I shall conclude with one from a 
liying Legate, and one from a living Pope. 

" ' Our venerated hierarchy and clergy, in the ful- 
filment of their duties, will inculcate the strict and 
religious duty of selecting as representatives of the 
people, those men who are best fitted to support, in 
the Imperial Parliament, ouk religious rights.' 
(Address to the Catholics of the United Kingdom. 
Signed : Paul, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate 
OF ALL Ireland.) 

" What is understood by ' our Eights V 

" Let Pius IX. explain. In his dealings with a 
neighboring kingdom, that Pontiff declares, in an 
allocution to the cardinals of the Church of Pome, 
delivered in the same month, and the same year 
(September, 1851), as the address quoted above: 
that 'He hath taken this principle for basis, 
that the Catholic Religion, with all its rights, 
ought to be exclusively dominant, in such sort 
that every other worship shall be banished and 
interdicted.' 

"In the same allocution, the Pope explains, also, 
that by ecclesiastical Liberty, is meant, ' The free 

EXERCISE OF THEIR PROPER EpISCOPAL JURISDICTION 

BY THE Bishops.' Now the Sacrosanct Council of 
Trent has decreed, ' inviolably,' that this Jurisdig- 

15 



170 OLD AND NEW. 

TioN readies to civil officers, ' even tliougli created 
by imperial or royal authority,' that it may be ex- 
ercised over ^ cleric or layman, by whatever dignity 
pre-eminent, be he Emperor or King;' that it in- 
cludes ' the Eight, if it he judged expedient^ to pro- 
ceed against all persons whatsoever^ by means of 
pecuniary fines, by distress upon the goods, or arrest 
of the person / and if there be contumacy, by smiting 
with the sword of Anathema.' (§ XXII., cc. x., xi. ; 
§ XXY., c. iii.) 

"Now,. then, we know what is meant by ooveen- 
iNO, when the phrase occurs in Pastorals ' given out 
of the Flaminian Gate ;' and for any well-informed, 
orthodox Roman Catholic to explain it otherwise, 
or to say that he owes allegiance to Queen Victoria, 
or that Queen Victoria reigns at all, otherwise than 
because the Pope and his delegates are not able to 
do their Duty — or, in Bellarmine's words, ' quia de- 
sunt vires temporales' — is something that can only 
be accounted for upon the canonized theory of Am- 
phibology, or the hypothesis of incapacity. 

'' There is a kingdom of this world, and there is a 
kingdom not of this world. There is a Csesar upon 
earth, and there is a God in heaven. But a visible 
God over Caesar, a Vice-God upon earth, is the most 
impudent and the most blasphemous, as it has been 
the most cruel and the most disastrous lie that ever 
was invented." 



CHAPTER XY. 

PENAXCE, AKD THE MORALITY OF T 

We have now vindicated tlie autliority of the 
Christian Creed, and the Constitution of the Chris- 
tian Cliurch, against the novelties of sectarian error, 
Popish and Protestant. To examine and expose 
other divergences from the old religion, would far 
exceed the limits contemplated for this publication. 
The remaining articles of the Papal Creed, the mis- 
erable occasion of so many hurtful reactions and 
antagonistic extremes of error, must fall with the 
overthrow of the authority that imposed them. 
Most of them are the instruments of guile and super- 
stition with which the Papacy works, to retain its 
evil ascendency over the minds and affections of 
men, and to establish that Universal Monarchy 
which is its steady and unfaltering aim. 

These articles are couched in very general terms, 
so as to admit of contraction or expansion according 
to the temper of the times, or to the exigencies of 
fraudulent proselytism. In Protestant countries and 
with persons of ingenuous and independent minds, 
their worst features are carefully concealed, and 
covered up under the verbiage of sentimental and 
poetical language. 

But the practical and legitimate construction given 



173 OLD AND KEW. 

to these articles by the " traditions and cnstoms of 
the same Church," has this great controlling ob- 
ject — to bestow upon a Janissary Priesthood a pow- 
er and influence over the human soul utterly incon- 
sistent with human right and liberty. 

Tlie conversion of Repentance — a Godly sorrow 
for sin — into Penance — a punishment for sin en- 
joined by the Priest — with the exaltation of this 
ecclesiastical invention and all its concomitants, of 
enforced aitricular confession and private absolu- 
tion^ into a pretended sacrament, introduces and 
enthrones this malign order in the very heart of 
humanity. All the relations of society, of home, 
and country ; the duties and affections of parents 
and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sis- 
ters, friends and neighbors, and all the duties of 
patriotism, are thus brought under the direction and 
control of an Okdek — a Caste — isolated by its con- 
stitution from the best instincts, affections, and in- 
terests of humanity. 

The legitimate fruits of this terrific system of hu- 
man bondage were not seen, and could not be re- 
alized, as long as it was acknowledged to be the 
inalienable privilege of every man to keep a con- 
science of his own. It is the bad eminence of Jes- 
uitism that it broke down this last defence of human 
nature. The founder of that order — the too illus- 
trious Loyola — established ''the Society of Jesus" 
upon the principle that Obedience to a man is the 
only virtue: and that self-immolation is the only 
true obedience. These are his words : 

" That man's obedience is not worthy to be called 



PENANCE, AND THE CONFESSIONAL. 173 

by the name of yirtue, who does not make the Will 
OF HIS Superior his own, and so agree with it, that 
what one wills both will, and what one does not will 
neither does the other. Down, then, with yonr whole 
will wholly. Freely give up, and dedicate to your 
Creator, in the person ^His 2£inister^ that freedom 
with which He has endowed you. 

'' But if you would i]simolate your whole self 
wholly unto God, you must offer to Him, not the 
bare will merely, but the Understanding also ; to 
think just what the Superior thinks, and take his 
JUDGMENT FOR YOUR OWN, SO far as it is possible for a 
devoted will to bend the understanding. It is im- 
possible to deny that Obedience includes not only 
the doino^ of what is commanded and the willino; of 
what is done, but the submission of the judgment 
also, that whatever is commanded should be thought 
right and true ; for Obedience is a Holocaust where- 
in THE WHOLE MAN, without any part reserved what- 
ever, is IMMOLATED to his Crcator and his Lord by 
the hands of his ministers. 

" The noble simplicity of Blind Obedience is gone, 
if in our secret breast we call in question whether 
that which is commanded be Right or Wrong. This 
is what makes it perfect and acceptable to the Lord, 
that the most excellent and most precious part of 
man is consecrated to Him, and nothing whatsoever 
of him kept back for himself. And let every man 
be well persuaded that he who lives under Obedi- 
ence ought to suffer himself to be carried about and 
governed of Divine Providence through his Supe- 
riors, exactly as if he were a Corpse, which suffers 

15'^ 



174: OLD AND NEW. 

itself to be turned in all directions, and dragged 
everywhere ; or as if lie were an old man's staff, to 
be nsed wheresoever and in whatsoever he wishes 
who holds it in his hand." (Epistola S. Ignatii de 
Yirtnte Obedientise.) 

The power of the Order, organized under this ter- 
rible principle, effected wondrous things for the Pa- 
pacy, and in a few years the fairest portion of Europe 
was reclaimed from the aggressions of Truth and 
Protestantism. But the flagitious crimes committed 
by the Order under the necessary action of the same 
anti-social principle, so shocked the moral sense even 
of Romanism — not yet thoroughly Jesuitized, not 
yet lost to humanity — that it was successively driven 
with execration from nearly every kingdom in Eu- 
rope, and was formally suppressed by a Papal de- 
cree in 1773. The suppression was but temporary 
and nominal. The Society and its principles con- 
tinued to work, corrupting the popular mind and 
heart. Pius VII. revoked the bull of Clement, and 
reinstated the Jesuits, in 1814. Jesuitism was felt 
to be a logical necessity of genuine Eomanism. The 
Church of Rome is now thoroughly Jesuitized. The 
worst morals of the Company, condemned by the 
common conscience of the world, and by a formal 
decree of Pope Innocent YL, have been authorita- 
tively revived and solemnly adopted as her own by 
the Church of Rome. These Morals were repro- 
duced in '^ The Moral Theology of St. Alfonso de 
Liguori." In 1803, the sacred Congregation of Rites 
decreed, '' that in all the writings of Alfonso de 
Liguori, edited and inedited, there was not a word 



AND THE CONFESSIONAL. 175 

that could be jnstly found fault with." Pins YII. 
ratified this decree, and soon after admitted Lignori 
to the preliminary degree of beatification. In 
1831, a decree from another tribunal, the Sacred 
Penitentiaiy, confirmed bv Pope Gregory XYI., 
adopted the moral theology of Lignori as the rule 
for the guidance of the Confessional. And in 1839, 
Alfonso was canonized. Since that time Romanism 
and Jesuitism have been becoming more and more 
identical. The Priests of the old regime^ many of 
them gentlemen, and having a conscience of their 
own, are fast passing away. The Jesuit principle of 
blind Obedience is not only the rule of the Priest- 
hood, but is sedulously instilled into all orders of 
the people. Cardinal Wiseman announces the ab- 
rogation of private conscience and of personal re- 
sponsibility in these words : 

'' In the Catholic Church no one is ever allowed 
to trust himself in Spiritual matters* The Sovereign 
Pontiflf is obliged to submit himself to the direction 
^ANOTHER in whatever concerns his own soul." 

St. Philip Neri announces the same proposition 
thus : 

'' Let him that desires to grow in godliness give 
himself up to a learned Confessor, and be obedient 
to him as to God. He that thus acts is safe rRo:M: 
having ant account to render of all his actions. 
The Lord will see to it that his confessor lead him 
not astray.'^ (Cited in " Cases of Conscience.") 

The code of morals administered in the tribunal 
of the Confessional, to victims tlius trained to Blind 
Obedience and self-immolation, can only be learned 



176 OLD AND NEW. 

by studying the works of Romisli Casuists prepared 
for the purpose ; or such exposures of their teaching 
as may be found in Pascal's Letters, and in Meyrick's 
" Moral Theology of the Church of Rome ;" repub- 
lished in this country, with an admirable introduc- 
tion by the Eev. A. C. Coxe, D. D. The honest 
incredulity of honorable men finds it hard to believe 
that incarnate evil can thus stalk abroad in the guise 
of religion, that Satan can indeed assume the form 
of an Angel of liglit. 

In the Confessional, servants are taught how to 
steal from their employers without guilt ; wives and 
children to deceive and rob their husbands and par- 
ents, not only without blame, but meritoriously. 
In the Confessional, a morality is taught which con- 
verts the solemnities of a Court of Justice into a 
bitter mockery of human right. Let the following 
specimens suffice. 

" Servants do not sin, if, when their masters refuse 
them support or jicst wages, they take secret com- 
pensation, so long at least as there are no other 
means of getting it, and no more is taken than ought 
to be, and no scandal or other sei'ioiis inconvenience 
id feared. "^^ (Liguori, iv., 349.) 

" A wife can give alms and presents, according to 
the custom of other women of her state and condi- 
tion, although her husband forbids her. Hence also 
she can give moderate alms that she may efifect the 
conversion of her husband, or lest God ghould pun- 
ish him." (lb., 540.) Money to the Priests for 
masses, and to build or endow a Chapel, would 
come under this allowance. 



MORALITY OF THE COISTFESSIONAL. 177 

The right of sons to steal from their fathers, and 
of any person to steal from another, is made to de- 
pend npon the amount stolen compared with the 
fortune of the person despoiled, — but we must pass 
this by. 

" Children do not onlj not six, in becoming 
monks or nuns without consulting their parents, but, 
generally speaking, they do very wrong if they let 

THEM know of THEIR INTENTION, OH aCCOUUt of the 

danger they expose themselves to of being turned 
away from it. The examples of great numbers of 
saints confirm this beyond a doubt." (Liguori, v., 68. 

Amphibology — Equivocation. Tliese two words 
express a very elaborate science of deceit and false- 
hood. 

" Amphibology can be in three fashions : 1. When 
a word has two senses, as the word volo means both 
to wish and to fly. 2. When a sentence bears two 
main meanings. ... 3. AVhen words have two senses, 
one more common than the other, or one literal, the 
other metaphorical. . . . Thus, if a man is asked 
about something which it is to his interest to con- 
ceal, he can answer, No^ I say / that is, I say the 
word, NO." 

'' Well, then, it is certain, and held by all doctors 
alike, that for a good reason it is allowable to use 
equivocation in these ways which have been ex- 
plained, and to confirm it with an oath. So say 
Lessius, Cardenas, and the Salamanca doctors. The 
reason is, that thus we do not deceive our neighbor, 
but, on good reason, allow him to deceive himself; 
and again, we are not bound to speak according to 



178 OLD A^^D -N^EW. 

the understanding of others, if there is good reason ; 
and any honest object, such as keeping om* goods, 
spiritual or temporal, is a good reason." 

" But now, if Ton have not a good reason, is it a 
mortal sin to swear am23hibologically, or with mere 
pure mental restriction ?" After citing authorities 
on both sides, the Saint declares for the negative, 
that to swear in this way is not a mortal sin ; and 
he adds : '' Xor is there any thing in what Tiva 
says, that a man swearing in this way calls on God 
to witness to what is false, for he calls upon Him to 
^ritness what is true, according to his own iiuaningr 

"^ It is certain that a witness is not bound to con- 
fess the truth to a judge, when he does not legiti- 
mately interrogate ; for then he may lawfully an- 
swer, even with an oath, that he does not know the 
crime, (aside) so as to be bound to declare it to him. 
But it is asked, when does a judge question legiti- 
mately ? The reply is, when there is already half- 
full proof. . . . When there is this, the crime is no 
lono^er said to be secret, and therefore the Judo-e has 
a right that the witness should declare the truth." 
In another place he says, in case of a trial where the 
crime is altogether concealed, '* a witness may, nay 
he is bound to say that the defendant has not com- 
mitted it." 

The Saint continues — 

'' May a judge take money to despatch the cause 
of one man before another ?" Authorities are cited 
on both sides of this question, but the unanimous 
determination is in the affirmative, if the judge 
"should take anv extraordinarv trouble, which he 



MORA.LITY OF THE CONFESSIONAL. 179 

^^as not bound by liis office to take." " Does a man 
commit a sin who offers bribes to a jndge or to bis 
ministers ? Distingue. If be give without good rea- 
son, he commits sin by co-operating in an unlawful 
receiving, but not if he gives with a reason, namely, 
to free himself from an annoyance which he does 
not deserve." (v., 196, 212.) 

'' Even where you are legitimately and juridically 
interrogated, you are not bound to give evidence, if 
there be danger of any notable harm to yourself or 
your family from your evidence. Whence it is 
commonly held, that you are not bound to give evi- 
dence against a relative. Moreover, laymen are 
rejected as witnesses against clergymen, in criminal 
cases. . . . On the other hand, clergymen and monlrs 
can give evidence against laymen, though they 

CANNOT (lawfully) BE FORCED TO DO SO, BY A SECULAR 

JUDGE. It is clear, moreovp:r, that a Clergyman 

CANNOT GIVE EVIDENCE AT ALL, BEFORE A SeCULAR 

Court, without leave of his Superior." (v., 261.) 
It must be remembered that the effect of this 
determination is not to make the Clergyman or 
other witness contumacious, by refusing to answer, 
and so subject himself to civil penalties; but, 
simply to make the interrogation ''illegitimate," 
and so discharge the party from all obligation to 
speak the truth. He may, therefore, with erdire 
innocence swear to any falsehood lohich may defeat 
the object of the inquiry and delude the Court. 

Not only is it " illegitimate" for a Secular Court 
to examine Clergymen, or to take cognizance of any 
cases affecting Clergymen ; but all cases of Wills, of 



180 OLD AND NEW. 

Marriage, of Divorce, of Ecclesiastical property, and 
several other branches of jurisprudence, are claimed 
as being under the rightful and exclusive jurisdic- 
tion of the Ecclesiastical Courts ; and, therefore, a 
witness called before a civil trihunal^ in any such 
cases^ may swear to any thing that suits his interest^ 
or that of the Churchy tuithout incurring any guilt, 

" He who has promised marriage, if he is not 
bound to keep his promise, may deny it." 

" A woman, who has confessed her adultery to 
a Priest, may answer, I am innocent of the crime, 
because it has been taken away by the Sacrament. 
Cardenas says, that she cannot affirm it with an 
oath, because in an oath, certainty is required ; but, 
we answer, that moral certainty is sufficient; and 
Busenbaum, Lessius, Soto, Sanchez, Sayr, and Arago, 
say, that she may deny it altogether with an oath, 
saying, I have not done it; meaning, so as to be 
bound to tell it." (Liguori, iv., 159-162.) 

These brief extracts will suffice to show the foul- 
ness of the moralitj^of the Confessional — that elastic 
system which is severe or lax, according to the 
temper of its subjects, and according to the interests 
of mother Church, and of the priests who adminis- 
ter it. IsTo wonder that the nations writhing under 
this curse are incapable of civil and political free- 
dom, when the individual man has surrendered 
himself, soul and body, mind and conscience, to the 
keeping of a Priest ! No wonder that those who 
have been strong enough to throw off this degrading 
yoke have come to scorn and hate a Priest, and to 
despise and hate all religion for the Priest's sake ! 



MORALITY OF THE CONFESSIONAL. 181 

This is the terrible reaction which we see every day 
from that Satanic scheme of a universal Sacerdotal 
despotism, which seeks to establish its quiet and un- 
disturbed dominion upon the ruins of all that is 
pure, and noble, and good, in regenerate human 
nature. 

Two Clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States, of high position and 
■unsusjyected honesty^ have, at distant intervals, sub- 
mitted themselves to the Komish Church. They 
went out from us infatuated, possessed. What they 
saw and found disenchanted them — made them ivien 
once more ; and with the courage of true men, they 
cast off their chains, and returned to freedom and to 
duty. The awful lesson which they learned, at so 
vast a cost, should not be lost to society and to 
religion. The first of these honest perverts, the 
Rev. Pierce Connelly, Pector of Christ Church, 
Natchez, thus refers to his hallucination concerning 
the doctrines of Pome : '' I have not forgotten the 
awful regard with which I ever approached them 
during my great delusion. Their mysterious fascin- 
ation of soul and sense, must be felt to be imagined ; 
and I cannot but respect the deep sincerity of such 
faith in others, however I can no longer hold it, 
when all the visionary basis it was built upon is 
gone forever." 

'' I not only gave up myself, body and spirit, but, 
God forgive me, I gave up all that was intrusted to 
me, all that was dear to me, to my new obedience. 
I had put my natuiral affections under ban, I had 
renounced the senses which our Lord himself bade 

16 



182 OLD AND NEW. 

his Apostle St. Thomas appeal to finally. I had 
renounced much of my private reason. But I never 
had let go my conscience. And so I never was — 
you are not, my Lord, you never can be — truly a 
Romanist. To make a consistent, congruous Eoman 
Catholic, there must be unreasoning submission in 
morals as in faith." 

'' Supposed infallibility led me into the commu- 
nion of exclusive Home. And no dogma taught by 
her would ever have made me doubt that infallibili- 
ty. It is her moral theology, her prescribed work- 
ing as a practical system, that has made the false- 
ness of her pretension to infallibility as clear to me 
as any one of Euclid's demonstrations. 

" Facts not to be misunderstood, facts authorized, 
avowed, defended, persevered in, facts of iniquity in 
isolated families and in combined kingdoms, opened 
my eyes to see that the spiritual despotism of the 
Papacy is used everywhere alike recklessly, to de- 
fend and establish either the right or the wrong — to 
propagate either the most blessed truths, or to per- 
petuate the grossest errors ; but that it is always at 
war with every natural, every social, every civil re- 
lation, always breeding domestic and political anar- 
chy as cover for priestly domination to be hidden 
under, 

" There is, blessed be God, a vast amount of holi- 
ness in the Church of Rome ; but it is not of her, I 
think it might be demonstrated that it is never sanc- 
tity that makes a ' Saint,' in the Church of Rome. 
The title to modern canonization at least is sino^u- 
larity, moral picturesqueness, no matter if beautiful 



MORALITY OF THE CONFESSIOl^AL. 183 

or Ugly, — something to be run after — something to 
flatter pride and turn folly to account. Down to its 
minutest exhibitions. Papal holiness is histrionic." 

Mr. Connelly brings out, with great force, the de- 
moralizing influence of the doctrine of Proba- 
bility, as now held in the Church of Pome. The 
doctrine is, that any act whatever may be commit- 
ted without sin, if a probable opinion can be brought 
in its favor. Ilie dictum of any Casuist of reputa- 
tion constitutes a probable opinion. And there is 
hardly a crime, in the dark catalogue of human 
off'ences, which has not been recommended under 
certain easy conditions, by some high Jesuit author- 
ity. Let us hear Connelly once more : 

"With himself for judge, my Lord, no man's 
crime is ever resolved upon without something of a 
scruple ; no man's crime is in secret ever thoroughly 
applauded, or even quite forgiven ; but with another 
man to keep his conscience in the name of God ! 
with absolution ready, or 'probability^ making ab- 
solution superfluous, or a ' director^ s^ warrant given 
beforehand ! audacity becomes a part of faith, and 
remorse a criminal mistrust. A husband, a father, 
or a king, is struck down with as steady a hand as 
any sentenced felon. 

" It is a principle in Zoroaster's code of morals, 
that in any doubt about an action, whether it be 
good or bad, we must abstain from doing it. The 
now established doctrine of Pome is just the oppo- 
site ; a doubt about an action being unlawful, at 
once makes it lawful. The doubt may be thrown 
away upon the faith of Probability. 



184 



OLD AXD KEW. 



" Nor does the doctrine of probability stop here. 
Eome has laid it down as a principle in her moral- 
ity, that personal conviction of the unlawfulness or 
dangeronsness of an action, is no bar whatever to 
its being lawfully ' directed^ by a priest, or virtu- 
ously perpetrated by his penitent. The opinion of 
any one unrepudiated theologian makes a prohahil- 
ity. And the ' director'^ is at liberty to be silent as 
to what he himself in hi& conscience believes right, 
and to give advice according to what is made prob- 
able by the idiognosticism of any unheard-of casu- 
ist, by the authority of some individual Sanchez or 
Escobar ; and any Roman Catholic may, without 
blame, wander from one director to another, till he 
find one to his mind, and thus have sacred warrant 
to do what in his soul he believes to be a deed 
of sin." 

" I have seen priests and bishops of the Church 
of Rome, — their own convictions disregarded, and 
all responsibility to God and to society thrown ofi^, 
in the instinct of hostility to man's natural rela- 
tionships (in spite too, in one instance, of the pri- 
vate commands of the Pope himself) — I have seen 
them band together, for the mere sake of a legacy 
or a life-interest, to break down laws which are 
looked upon, even by savages, as the most sacred of 
all, divine or human. I have known a husband 
taught and directed to deal double in the sacred 
matter of religion with his own high-born wife ; and 
daughters without number, with their trusting par- 
ents. I have known, in Derbyshire, a young lady 
not eighteen years of age, the daughter of a wid- 



MORALITY OF THE CO]tirFESSIONAL. 185 

owed mother, the mother also a Roman Catholic, 
seduced into a convent nnder false pretences, kept 
there in spite of every eftort of her family, with the 
approbation of the Papal authorities, and only de- 
livered by my own public threat, as a priest, of 
application to the civil power, and consequent fear 
of scandal. 

" I have read to the pure and simple minded Car- 
dhial-Prefect of the Propaganda a narrative, writ- 
ten to a pious lay friend, by a respected Roman 
priest, of such enormities of lust in his fellow-priests 
around him, that the reading of them took away my 
breath, — to be answered, ' Caro mio — I know it — I 
know it all, and more, and worse than all ; but noth- 
ing can be done.' I have known a priest received 
and honored at a prince-bishop's table, when the 
host knew him to have just seduced a member of 
his own family. But nothing could be done! I 
have seen priests of mean abilities, of coarse na- 
tures, and gross breeding, practise upon 23ure and 
highly-gifted women of the upper ranks — married 
and unmarried — the teachings of their treacherous 
and impure casuistry, with a success that seemed 
more than human. I have seen these priests impose 
their pretendedly divine authority, and sustain it by 
mock miracles, for ends that were simjDly devilish. 
I have had poured into my ears what can never be 
uttered, and what ought not to be believed, but was 
only too plainly true. And I have seen that all that 
is most deplorable, is not an accident, but a result, 
and an inevitable result, and a confessedly inevitable 
result, of the working of the practical system of the 

16-^ 



186 OLD A^^D NEW. 

Churcli of Koine, witli all its stupendous machinery 
of mischief ; and the system is irrevocable and irre- 
mediable." 

" It is the soul that makes the man ; and its 
religion is a nation's soul. Cunning, mistrust, and 
civil impotency, treachery, cruelty, and sensuality, 
follow the Roman superstition, where established, 
just as they follow hereditary corporal slavery. It 
is hardly possible to make up the sum of gratitude 
that is due to those who, under God, set England free. 
. . . "Were it not for the Protestant monarchy of 
England, Christendom of to-day would be the 
Christendom of the middle ages ; burning heretics 
would be a holiday amusement for every city pop- 
ulace, and ostentatious concubinage would be, in 
Europe, as it is in Mexico, and parts of South Amer- 
ica, a grateful and respected promise of moderation 
in the clergy. 

" 'No ! it is not civil liberty that is the first want 
of the Continent of Europe, or of the Spanish Re- 
publics of America. The want is — the education 
necessary for men to be free; the perception of 
what is liberty ; the want is — Emancipation from a 
Pseudo-Divine Jurisdiction upon earth ; — this is 
the want that makes the darkness of their future, as 
of their present and their past. Rome weighs upon 
her victims like an eternal nightmare." 

The foregoing powerful and suggestive passages 
are taken from the letter of Mr. Connelly to the 
Earl of Shrewsbury, whose Chaplain he was. The 
Rev. Dr. Forbes, the other distinguished penitent, 
who bought his knowledge of Rome so dearly, has 



MOLALITY OF THE COXFESSIO]S"AL. 187 

not yet publicly revealed tlie secrets of liis prison- 
house. His letter of renunciation to Archbishop 
Hughes only enables us plainly to infer that the 
sepulchre which seemed to him so beautiful with- 
out, was found to be all uncleanness within. 



CHAPTER XYI. 



THE EUCHARIST. 



The fifth article of tlie Romisli Creed is another 
sad and horrible perversion of the old religion. Our 
Saviour instituted the blessed Sacrament of His 
body and blood to be the simple and expressive sub- 
stitute of all the Sacrifices of the previous econo- 
mies, as Baptism was the substitute of all tlie Puri- 
fications of those preparatory systems. All those 
sacrifices pointed forward to Christ. They were all 
types of '' The Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sin of the world." As parts of an elaborate system 
of teaching by types and shadows, some of them 
were empowered to take away ceremonial offences. 
But as an expiation for sin, fer moral pollution, 
they were never offered. The one Christian Sacrifice 
points backward to Christ. The dispensation of 
types and shadows having come to an end, the new 
Sacrifice has no superadded ceremonial aspect or 
efficacy, for there are no ceremonial offences to be 
removed. 

As a Commemorative Sacrifice, this Sacrament is 
the worthy Christian complement of the great end 
and purpose of the sacrifices' of the old law. They 
could only point in dim, and shadowy, and uncer- 
tain representation, to a redemption not yet accom- 



THE EUCHAEIST. 189 

pHslied and not yet understood. This recites plainly 
the fact of that glorious redemption, now that it has 
been made, and tells in every land, in eyery nation, 
to eyery Christian assembly, in each age and gener- 
ation down to the end of the world, the strange 
story of redeeming loye — ^how the Father Almighty 
sent His only Son into the world to suffer and to 
die, that we, poor sinners, might liye. 

As a Eucharistic Sacrifice, this Sacrament effica- 
ciously assists us to present unto God our praises 
and thankcgiyings, not only for all his wonderful 
goodness to the children of men, but especially for 
that. His inestimable benefit, witnessed by this 
same Sacrament, the gift of His dear Son to be our 
Saviour. 

As a Communion, this Sacrament is at once the 
union of God with us by the Holy Ghost, and the 
union of all the redeemed people of God with one 
another in that mystical body of which Christ is 
the Head. 

The gift of " an inward and spiritual grace," and 
the actual symbolic delivery thereof by " an out- 
ward and visible sign," is a plain and intelligible 
proposition. It is the adaptation of a universal 
mode of thought, language, and action, to display 
to our faith a Divine and inexplicable mystery, and 
to be a means of accomplishing that mystery in the 
soul and body of each faithful recipient. 

In the Eucharist, consecrated bread and wine are 
" the outward and visible signs," " the body and 
blood of Christ" are "the inward and s]3iritual 
grace." The Church affirms in the Catechism that 



190 



OLD AND NEAV. 



the benefits whereof we are partakers by this Sacra- 
ment are, " the strengthening and refreshing of our 
sonls by the body and blood of Christ, as our bodies 
are by the bread and wine." The worthy ccmmu- 
nicant receives both, says the Church. " The body 
and blood " being " a spiritual grace^'^ and not a 
carnal compound, must be the saving virtue and 
efficacy of that body and blood which were broken 
and poured out for us on the Cross ; and which are 
thus, hy the ministration of The Spirit, conveyed to 
our souls, to transform us more and more to the 
nature and likeness of our Saviour, Christ. 

In beautiful analogy with this discriminating 
statement of doctrine by the Church, is the asser- 
tion of St. Paul in regard to the " inward and spir- 
itual grace" in the other Sacrament — that, ''by one 
Spirit we are all baptized into one body." It is 
manifest from this expression, and from the whole 
tenor of the Bible, in respect to the work and op- 
eration of the Holy Spirit, that Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper are only parts and diverse exhibi- 
tions of the same tremendous mystery — the union 
of the Divine and human nature in the person of 
Christ, and the oneness with Christ of His redeemed 
people. 

llie Eucharist contains no additional mystery, 
but is, on the contrary, designed to exhibit, and 
make more plain and certain, the one inscrutable 
mystery of redemption, by a sensible representation 
of it. It is an instance in which our blessed Lord 
employed ^' earthly things " as a means of manifest- 
ing " heavenly things." 



THE EUCHARIST. 191 

This sacramental exhibition of the mystery of sal- 
vation may be illustrated by analogous forms of 
representation, but the mystery itself can never be 
explained, and no analogies can be reasonably em- 
ployed to effect such explanation. The gracious 
purpose of our Lord in giving us this " outward and 
visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace," may 
be vindicated against the wild imaginations of some, 
and the gross conceptions of others, and the frigid 
philosophy of a third class, by a great number of anal- 
ogies, proving that this sacrament is an appeal to the 
common-sense and practical understanding of men, 
to enable them to realize and more firmly to believe 
the great mystery of their salvation, '' God manifest 
in the flesh," and '' Christ in us the hope of glory." 

This Sacrament is, indeed, as the ancients proj)erly 
and reverently called it, " the tremendous mystery," 
because it exhibits and sets forth in a simple action, 
and in a few moments of time, and in the briefest 
words, and helps to acco7nplish in every leliever that 
wonderful and adorable mystery of Godliness which 
Angels desire to look into, which it is the j^urpose 
of the whole word of God to unfold, and which it 
required uiany successive revelations, and the mirac- 
ulous preservation of the Church through a long 
course of ages, and the ministration of innumerable 
patriarchs and prophets, and the mission of the Son 
of God Himself, to make known to men. But be- 
yond these purposes, the Sacrament is no otherwise 
a mystery than as prayer and baptism, and all other 
outward and visible means of spiritual grace are 
mysteries. 



192 OLD AND KEW. 

In two forms of the K'ew religion, tlie nature of 
this Sacrament is destroyed. What is called the 
Zuinglian theory, takes away the inward and spirit- 
ual 2:race, leavino^ nothino; bnt the bread and wine 
as empty signs. The new Papal Creed, by its low 
and degrading physical theory of transnbstantiation, 
does the same thing, because that theory takes away 
those essential elements of a Sacrament, the outward 
and visible signs of the inward and spiritual grace. 

The figment that this Sacrament is " a Propitiatory 
sacrifice for the living and the dead," is an adoption 
into Christian theology of the very worst and most 
degrading of the corruptions of heathenism, which 
supposed that human sacrifices could atone for 
human sins. By virtue of this most foul corruption 
of religion, the Romish Priesthood has been enabled 
to persuade rich and poor alike, that by purchasing 
Masses they can purchase salvation, at least from 
the pains of Purgatory, both for themselves and for 
their departed relatives. The use that has been 
made by the Priesthood of this supposed power to 
sell these all-sufficient satisfactions for sin, is written 
in the history of Europe, and is seen in the condition 
of the credulous masses of the people in all Romish 
countries. 

Again, the Eucharist, being a Positive Institution^ 
must be observed literally and precisely according 
to its tenor and meaning, or it is not really observed 
at all. This is a settled principle of universal law 
with regard to all positive institutions. That feature 
of the new religion, therefore, which denies the cup 
to the Laity, and thus attempts to mutilate the insti- 



THE ErCHARIST. 193 

tution of Christ, is not so mucli a mutilation as an 
utter abandonment of the Sacrament. The institu- 
tion not being complied with, there is no Sacrament 
at all, so far as the Eomish Laity are concerned. 
What they receive is not our Lord's blessed gift, but 
the Priest's incantation, to take away their reason 
and stultify their souls. 

17 



CHAPTER XYH. 

PURGATORY, INDULGENCES, AND ROMISH SCHOOLS. 

The 8tli, 9tli, and lOth articles of the Papal Creed 
compose one system, in close relation with the pre- 
tence last mentioned. The figment of Purgatory, 
unknown to Christianity, is kept before the faithful 
as the certain doom of all but a few Saints, who are 
themselves the objects of worship. The members of 
Christ are to be extricated from this state of torment 
only by " the suffrages of the faithful," which are, 
in part, these masses aforesaid, and by Indulgences, 
which derive their virtue from the superabundant 
works and prayers of the Saints. 

The Council of Trent says, "As the Catholic 
Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit, has taught 
in her Councils, and this Synod has now recently 
declared, that there is a Purgatory, and that the 
souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of 
the faithful, but principally by the acceptable sacri- 
fice of the Altar, therefore," &c. In a popular 
Romish book, an Indulgence is defined to be a re- 
mission of that temporal punishment which the for- 
given sinner must endure in Purgatory. (Faith of 
Catholics, pp. 315, 319.) 

This superabundance of merit and satisfaction is 
placed at the sole disposal of each successive Pope, 
who dispenses it in the form of Indulgences for the 



PURGATORY INDULGENCES. 195 

benefit of less perfect Christians. These Indulgences 
are bestowed for a pecuniary or other valuable con- 
sideration. The scandal occasioned by the open sale 
of Indulgences for money, has induced the Papal 
Court in modern times to emiploy them more com- 
monly in other ways for the augmentation of the 
power of the Priesthood. Along with some " relic" 
they constitute a part of " the endowment" of many 
Churches. These documents set forth that any per- 
son saying certain prayers, or causing to be celebra- 
ted so many masses at the Altar of the Church so 
endowed, shall receive remission of a certain number 
of days or years of purgatorial pain, or a full dis- 
charge^ according as the Indulgence is "partial" 
or " plenary," and this favor may be applied by the 
person obtaining it, to his own benefit, or to that 
of any person living or dead, whom he or she may 
prefer. 

But the most efiTective use of this valuable inven- 
tion, in later times, is to encourage the formation of 
brotherhoods and sisterhoods, the members of which 
become the faithful and submissive servants of the 
Priests. Every such society in the Romish Church 
is richly endowed with these ecclesiastical treasures, 
so that every act of obedience, of devotion, and of 
mercy, performed by a member, has its exact price 
afl[ixed in the discharge of so much purgatorial pain. 
The weakness and credulity of these men and women, 
working for this imaginary reward, places at the dis- 
posal of the Priesthood an immense productive capital 
ofhody andmind^ to be employed in making money, 
and in making converts by educational institutions, 



196 OLD AKD NEW. 

and in making influence for this same Priestliood by 
waiting upon the sick and caring for the orphan. 

It is sad and humiliating to see these works of 
beneficence and love, which should be the free-will 
oflfering of each Christian heart, as occasion and op- 
portunitj occur, thus converted into a commercial 
speculation for the aggrandizement of a grasping and 
ambitious Caste. It is even more painful to see in- 
telligent Protestants, so regardless of all the lessons 
of the past, as to become the willing dupes and vic- 
tims of this base speculation. Every Eomish School 
in Protestant countries is instituted and maintained 
as an instrument of proselytism, and of Priestly 
power. Each one of them is largely endowed with 
Papal Indulgences ; and the deluded teachers work 
most industriously for a bare support in this world, 
in the certain confidence that they are purchasing 
eternal joys in heaven by their pious labors. They 
are assiduously taught Amphibology and Equivo- 
cation, as essential qualifications for their calling. 
It was almost entirely by these schools that the Jes- 
uits first drove back the wave of Protestantism from 
Southern and Western Europe. Then, as soon as 
the Ruling Classes had been sufficiently educated^ 
there was no difficulty in dealing with the rest. It 
was only to persuade these Jesuit scholars to issue 
persecuting edicts, and to crush out the rising con- 
science and freedom of the people. 

In this country the same operation is in progress. 
Cheap, showy, and superficial education is the lure. 
But the cautious parent will not expose his children 
to this temptation, until he exacts a solemn promise 



ROMISH SCHOOLS. 197 

from the teachers that they will not interfere in any 
way with the child's religion. Yery eager are these 
skilled Amphibologists in declaring that they will 
not do the very thing to which their whole life and 
labor are devoted, and for doing which they have 
the Patent of the Head of their religion that they 
shall be saved from the pains of Purgatorial torment. 

The necessary effect of several years' exposure to 
the superstitions so devoutly practised, and so skil- 
fully and dramatically presented, is either to induce 
a love of this religion, or a secret persuasion that all 
religion is a superstition and a lie. 

Leaving the school, apparently unscathed, does 
not end the terrible ordeal for the soul thus wantonly 
exposed. Wherever the scholar may go, in every 
change of place and fortune, his or -her name and 
character are on the books and in the memory of the 
Pope's UBIQUITOUS POLICE ; and no opportunity of 
turning those youthful impressions to account is ever 
permitted to pass unimproved. 

The most successful means of proselytism, in fe- 
male seminaries, is to conceal from parents and 
guardians those ailments which so often attend the 
critical period of pubescence ; and, during that time, 
to operate upon the melancholy and morbid state of 
the mind in those affections. Sometimes this treat- 
ment results in fixing upon the unhappy patient a 
mortal malady. But what of that? The " Sisters" 
rejoice, both with natural human sympathy, and 
with selfish congratulation. For the Priest assures 
them that they have saved a soul from hell, and 
purchased for themselves a great reward. 

17* 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

SAINT AND IMAGE WOESHIP. 

The true religion, once for all delivered, has no 
more prominent cliaracteristic than the care with 
which it restricts all religious service to One Lord 
God Almighty. All the apostasies of which we 
hear or read in all the ages, with a single exception, 
depart most flagrantly from this cardinal principle 
of revealed religion. Upon one pretence or another 
they all set up a crowd of minor Divinities, and of 
human or brute Mediators, as the nearest objects of 
worship, and the readiest channels of access to the 
far-off and too stern and implacable Omnipotent. 
At first, the more glorious objects and the more 
stupendous powers of external nature attracted this 
idolatrous homage of the deceived heart and dark- 
ened soul. But in the downward progress of this 
degrading system, the lowest forms of animal life, 
and of insensible matter, and the very workmanship 
of men's own hands, came to be accepted as syn%bols 
of Deity, and the objects of Divine adoration. The 
universality of this feature of religious apostasy 
proves the strong and almost resistless inclination 
of the fallen child of God to this form of error, and 
source of more and more hopeless prostration of 
mind and affection. The plain reason of this uni- 



SAINT AND EM AGE WORSHIP. 199 

versal prevalence of idolatry is tliat it satisfies the 
mere religious instinct, while it does not require the 
soul continually to look up to the eternal Source of 
purity and love, and so be compelled to abhor its 
own vileness, and to strive after the glorious holiness 
which it contemplates. 

It was with a provident and fatherly reference to 
this natural degeneration of the human soul that 
Almighty God, when He renewed, in formal verbal 
enactment, the Moral Law originally imbodied in 
the constitution of man, fenced around the prohibi- 
tion to worship any other God with the positive and 
minute interdiction of those very pretences by which 
the deceived heart had been gradually led into the 
lower depths of the worst idolatry. 

" Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven im- 
age, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven 
above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under 
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor 
worship them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren, unto the third and fourth generation of them 
that hate me ; and show mercy unto thousands in 
them that love me, and keep my commandments." 

This is no part of the ceremonial law of the Jews, 
as Romish casuists most falsely represent. It is one 
of the ten commandments. It is a substantive part 
of that authoritative republication of the Moral Law 
which was delivered with such awful grandeur in 
spoken words, and then written with the finger of 
God on tables of stone. This Moral Law of univer- 
sal and eternal obligation, was most carefully dis- 



200 OLD AND NEW. 

tinguislied from all the other laws given to the Is- 
raelites, not only by its terms, bnt by the time and 
manner of its delivery. In the wonderful fulness 
and adaptation to human nature of the directions of 
this second commandment, the deluding sophisms of 
these same Romish casuists about Latria, and Dulia, 
and Hyper-Dulia, with which they are wont to 
cozen the people, are anticipated and denounced. 
All imaginary distinctions about the degrees of reli- 
gious worship to be offered to different objects is 
here forbidden. ''Thou slialt not bow down to 
them, nor worship them." ISTo sort of external act, 
or interior feeling of devotion, is to be given to any 
creature. And then, to make the law still more com- 
prehensive, so as to include every possible case of 
real or seeming departure, and every possible apolo- 
gy for such departure, the reason of the law itself is 
given. And a most gracious reason it is : " For I 
the Lord thy God am a jealous God." 

God is jealous, not in the low and unworthy sense 
greedily affixed to these words by the enemies of 
Christianity, but jealous for our sakes, and out of his 
tender love for men. This is the strong human lan- 
guage by which our Heavenly Father warns us of 
our weakness, of our constant and imminent danger 
on this special point ; and assures us of the watchful 
care and tender solicitude with which He regards our 
first approaches to evil in this most fatal direction. 
It is in reckless defiance of this affectionate warning, 
and of this paternal love, that Christian Priests have 
dared to frame their scale of graduated worship for a 
corresponding scale of graduated Divinities. 



SAINT AND IMAGE WORSHIP. 201 

For a long time the Christian Church retained its 
purity in this regard. One of the grounds upon 
which the charge of atheism was preferred against 
Christians by the Pagans, was the absence of pic- 
tures and statues in the Churches. When at last 
they were introduced, under the specious guise of 
*' books for the unlearned,'' much opposition was 
excited. Eusebius tells us of a certain statue at 
Paneas, supposed to have been erected by the woman 
whom Chi'ist healed of a bloody issue. This statue 
was at the front door of a private dwelling. Euse- 
bius accounts for the existence of such a statue by 
the heathen character and feelings of the woman. 
"Nor is it to be wondered at," he says, '' that those 
of the Gentiles who were anciently benefited by our 
Saviour, should have done these things. Since we 
have also seen representations of the Apostles Peter 
and Paul, and of Christ Himself, still preserved in 
paintings, as it is probable that, according to a 
practice among the Gentiles, the ancients were 
accustomed to pay this kind of honor indiscriminately 
to those who were as saviors or deliverers to them." 
(Eusebius, " Eccle. History," p. 288, ch. 17, of Cruse's 
Trans.) 

This testimony shows conclusively that, down to 
the year 325, so jealous did the Christians continue 
to be in regard to images or pictures of those whom 
they revered, that they referred the existence of such 
things, even as matters of curiosity, and as the orna- 
ments of private dwellings, to the Gentile habits 
and feelings of those who possessed them. But such 
purity and simplicity did not endm^e very long after 



202 



OLD AND NEAV. 



this. A desire began to be entertained to make the 
Christian Churclies as magnificent and attractive 
as the heathen temples had been, so as to satisfy 
the crowd of half-converted Pagans, who now be- 
came nominally the worshippers of Christ. An 
ingenions sophistry soon nndertook to quiet the 
scruples of the Christians, by telling them that pic- 
tures and imao'es mio-ht be turned to admirable use 
as lessons of instruction to the unlearned. But so 
averse was the early Christian mind to this easily 
abused custom, that it was only by slow degrees that 
images, supported even by this specious reasoning, 
could attain to a place in the Churches. At the 
very close of the fourth century, Epiphanius, one of 
the most distinguished Christians of liis day, writes 
thus to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. " I entered into 
a certain Church to pray : I found there a linen 
cloth hanging in the Church-door, painted, and 
having in it the image of Christ, as it were, or of some 
other Saint (for I remember not well whose image 
it was) ; therefore, when I did see the image of a 
man hanging in the Church of Christ, contrary to 
the authority of the Scriptures, I did tear it, and 
gave counsel to the keepers of the Church, that they 
should wind a poor man that was dead in the said 
cloth, and so bury him." (Cited from the Homilies, 
p. 158.) 

But notwithstanding such instances of opposition 
as this, the Devil's ingenuity, setting forth the appar- 
ent reasonableness of the thing, gradually prevailed. 
And presently, by an invariable law of descent of the 
human mind, the pictures introduced into the Church 



SAINT AND IMAGE WORSHIP. 203 

for ornament and instruction, began to receive some- 
what of the reverence and homage due to the per- 
sons whom they represented ; that is, they began to 
be worshipped with some external marks of devotion. 
Another striking incident in ecclesiastical history 
reveals to us the gradual progress of corruption and 
of error ujDon this subject. 

Nearly at the close of the sixth century, " Sere- 
nus, bishop of Marseilles, observing some of his peo- 
ple to adore the images which had been placed in 
Churches, brake them in his zeal, and gave so much 
disgust by this conduct, that many withdrew from 
his communion. Gregory rebukes him on this ac- 
count, and wishes him to conciliate the affections of 
the people, by allowing them to make use of images 
as pieces of history to instruct their minds in the 
great facts of Christianity. He would have them 
use them as books for the illiterate people, and at 
the same time to caution them seriously against 
paying any adoration to them." (Milner, C. H., 
p. 403.) 

This was the Gregory who sent Augustin on a 
mission to the Saxons in England ; and the letter 
above cited is the first public allowance, that we 
know of, of images or pictures in a Church. But as 
yet, whatever was the conduct of the people, the 
Authorities forbade the worship of them. So rapid, 
after this allowance, was the progress of corruption, 
that in less than two centuries, in the year 787, the 
second Nicene Council established the worship of 
images, and anathematized those who rejected such 
worship. The symbol drawn up by the Council, 



204 OLD AND NEW. 

says, " I confess, and agree, and receive, and salute, 
and adore the unpolluted image of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, our true God, and the holy image of the holy 
mother of God. In like manner, also, I receive and 
adore the images of the holy apostles and prophets, 
and martyrs, and fathers, and eremites ; not, however, 
as gods. To those who adore not the holy and ven- 
erable images, let there be anathema. To those who 
blaspheme the precious and venerable images, let 
there be anathema. To those who diligently teach 
not the whole Christ-loving people to adore and 
salute the venerable, and holy, and precious images 
of all the saints, let there be anathema." (Cited 
from Faber Dif. Eom., p. 202.) 

This Council was from the first received as the 
seventh General Council, and its decrees enforced 
by the Church of Rome. But, for a long time, the 
Churches of Spain, France, Britain, and Germany, 
rejected the Council and repudiated its decrees. To 
the determinations of this Council the whole Roman 
obedience now stands pledged. And its later dec- 
larations, as well as its constant practice, are a con- 
sistent commentary upon the acts of this Council. 
The practice of the Romanists in regard to the 
shrines and images of their Saints, differs in no par- 
ticular from the practice of the heathen with regard 
to the images and shrines of their gods. I compile 
from one of the Homilies a few well-known particu- 
lars. Tlie Gentiles had tutelar Deities for each city 
and country ; these have tutelar saints for the same 
purpose. When you hear of our Lady of Walsing- 
ham, our Lady of Ipswich, our Lady of Loretto, 



I 



SAINT AND IMAGE WOESHIP. 205 

what is it but the counterpart of the heathen Diana 
Agrobia, Diana Ephesia, (fee, Venus Cypria, Yenus 
Paphia, &c. The sea and waters have as well spe- 
cial saints as formerly they had gods. Every artif- 
icer and profession hath his special Saint, as a pecu- 
liar god : scholars, St. Nicholas and St. Gregory ; 
painters, St. Luke, &c. St. Loy is the horse-leech, 
St. Anthony, the swineherd, &c. These professed 
Christians use towards their images the same rites 
and tokens of honor as did formerly the heathen. 
They go on pilgrimage to visit images and shrines, 
when they have the like at home, thus showing that 
they have a greater opinion of the holiness and virtue 
of some images than of others, just as the Gentiles 
venerated one shrine of a Deity more than another, 
as the Delphian Apollo was far more esteemed than 
any other. Christians kneel and bow down before 
their images, and light candles before them, at noon 
or at midnight, precisely as did the heathen. Chris- 
tians burn incense before their images, and hang up 
as offerings before the shrines of favorite Saints, 
crutches, chains, ships, legs, arms, whole men and 
women of wax, or silver, or gold, or precious stones, 
in testimony that by them they were delivered from 
lameness, sickness, captivity, or shipwreck. Thus it 
has happened with some of these shrines, just as in 
the analogous case of the favorite heathen temples, 
that these offerings have gradually accumulated to 
an immense amount. The same tales which were 
told about the miraculous way in which certain 
images of the gods were found or transferred, have 
been transferred to the images and Relics, and even 

18 



206 OLD AND NEW. 

to the dwellings of certain Saints. And the same 
kinds of miracles are alleged to have been performed 
in attestation of the power of the one as of the other. 
The Palladium, sent down from heaven, was a very 
modest legend compared with the removal of the 
Chapel of our Lady of Loretto, from India to Italy, 
in one night, by the hands of Angels. This being 
the notorious practice, what is the form of the pres- 
ent doctrinal teaching of that sect? The modern 
Romish Creed says, " I most firmly assert that the 
images of Christ and of the mother of God, ever 
vii'gin, and also of the other saints, are to be had 
and retained, and that due honor and veneration be 
given to them." What is that due honor and ven- 
eration is most clearly to be seen in the allowed 
practice of the subjects of this obedience. The 
catechism of the Council of Trent declares, that, 
'' To make and honor the images of our Lord, of his 
holy and virginal mother, and of the saints, is not 
only not forbidden by this commandment, but has 
always been deemed a holy practice." " This posi- 
tion derives confirmation from the monuments of the 
Apostolic age, the general councils of the Church, 
and the writings of so many among the Fathers, all 
of whom are of one accord upon the subject. But 
the pastor will not content himself with showing the 
lawfulness of the use of images in Churches, and of 
paying them religious respect, Avhen this respect is 
referred to their prototypes — he will do more ; he 
will show that the uninterrupted observance of this 
practice, up to the present time, has been attended 
with great adjutage to the faithful." (P. 250.) 



SAINT AND IMAGE WORSHIP. 207 

The enormity of the doctrine here propounded, is 
not greater than the boldness of the falsehood which 
claims the earliest Christian antiquity and the unan- 
imous consent of the Fathers for this practice. 

The present authentic teaching of this same Church 
in respect to the worship of the Saints themselves, is 
thus stated in another article of the Creed : " That 
the Saints reigning with Christ are to be worshipped 
and invocated, and that they offer prayers for us to 
God, and that their relics are to be venerated." The 
meaning of the terms here used can be most certainly 
ascertained by reference to the allowed practice. In 
the Catechism of Trent, the honor paid to Saints and 
Angels is said to be relative^ and the propriety is 
attempted to be proved by a perversion of certain 
passages of Scripture, but principally by the foUow- 
insr aro-ument : ^' But what incredulitv so obstinate 
but must yield to the evidence in support of the 
honor and invocation of the Saints, which the won- 
ders wrought at their tombs flash upon the mind ? 
The blind see, the lame walk, the paralyzed are in- 
vigorated, the dead raised to life, and evil demons 
are expelled from the bodies of men !" (P. 248.) 
This completes the parallel between the worship of 
the Saints and the ancient heathen idolatry. These 
wonders were alleged then, and are claimed now by 
heathen shrines. They were claimed as their cre- 
dentials by ancient heretics, and thay have been 
most successfully practised in modern times by a 
sect hated of these people, — the Jansenists of Port 
Royal. 

The Saints thus, for these and other reasons, ex- 



208 OLD AND NEW. 

alted to be objects of Cliristian worship, have almost 
taken the place of Him for whom they are substi- 
tuted. And had it not been for the indirect influ- 
ence of the Reformation upon the Romish body, the 
knowledge of God would, in all probability, have 
been swallowed up in their idolatries. The form of 
prayer most universally used among Romanists is 
the Rosary. In this rule of devotion, for every sin- 
gle invocation to any of the persons of the Godhead 
there are eleven to Mary, and instead of being ad- 
dressed merely as an intercessor, as is so often 
falsely alleged, she is called upon as a Goddess, 
having indej)endent authority, and even empowered 
to command her Son. Thus run the petitions to her : 
" Hail ! holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life^ our 
sweetness, and our hope ! to thee w^e cry, poor ban- 
ished sons of Eve, to thee we send np our sighs, 
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears." 
'' Grant us thy protection, defend us against the 
fiery darts of our enemy, and preserve our hearts and 
our bodies in a state of constant and entire purity." 
" The fifth mystery. Let us with exultation contem- 
plate the blessed Virgin Mary sitting in glory, at the 
right hand of her beloved Son. She is crowned by 
the Heavenly Father queen of heaven and earth, 
and appointed by Jesus Christ the dispenser of his 
graces." " O Queen of angels and of men ! I con- 
secrate myself entirely to thy service. Grant that I 
may honor thee by a true devotion, by endeavoring 
to imitate thy virtues, and by exerting myself to 
cause thee to be honored thus by others." 

But let us not visit upon the advocates of this 



SAINT AND E^IAGE WORSHIP. 209 

system the natural and actual consequences of their 
principles. Let us not charge them with the gross 
idolatry which, unhappily, we know to be practised 
by the vulgar of their communion in all the coun- 
tries where their religion is established, but which 
their controversialists very indignantly disclaim. 
Nor must we, on the other hand, allow them to 
profit by the dishonesty which would represent their 
present system as identical with the position assumed 
by Gregory the Great, and by the council of Frank- 
fort protesting against the decrees of the Second 
Nicene Synod, viz. : that pictures and images are 
only to be used as books for the unlearned, to in- 
struct them in reo:ard to the facts of the evano-elical 
history. That theory was a century too early in the 
process of development, to which the Eomish obedi- 
ence has been now for ten centuries committed, not 
only in her popular practice, but by her most solemn 
and deliberate teaching. Let us consider only the 
mildest and least objectionable form of the position 
which she actually occupies by her dogmatic teach- 
ing upon this subject. Let it be, as the Catechism 
of the Council of Trent says, that the honor and 
worship offered to Angels and Saints is only relative^ 
according to the degree of each, and that it is de- 
signed to be inferior to that which is presented to the 
Divine Majesty. Let us take it for granted also, in 
the words of the council, that, '' Tlie honor which 
we pay to images, is referred to the originals or Pro- 
totypes whom they represent ; so that by means of 
the images, or through the images, which we kiss, 
and before wdiich we kneel, we adore Jesus Christ, 

18* 



210 OLD AND NEW. 

and venerate liis saints." (Cited from Bossnet, p. 
113. Faith of Catli., 374.) 

So that each image is only honored with that 
degree of worship which is due to the original it 
represents. And this honor is not intended to 
stop at the image, but is referred and passes on to 
the person of whom it is the symbol. To the im- 
age of the saints therefore there is only offered that 
inferior worship which belongs to them, while to 
the image of Christ is paid the Divine worship 
which is due to Him. This is the most favorable 
light in which this system can be honestly pre- 
sented. And now let us compare it with that 
which we have heretofore ascertained to be the 
idolatry forbidden by the second commandment, 
and see wherein the difference consists. According 
to this system, the Angels and Saints are only 
worshipped with a relative worship, " as we honor 
the king by the respect which we pay to his magis- 
trates." This is the illustration of the Catechism 
of Trent. And you honor the image for the sake 
of its prototype. These prototypes (the Saints and 
Angels) are but symbols of the Deity, and every 
one knows that the symbol has no virtue except 
in its representative character. There is, we know, 
a necessary use of symbols (of, external nature) in 
religion. By symbols alone, either natural or arti- 
ficial (words or created things), can we know God. 
By symbols alone, postures, words, sacraments, or 
some other, can we worship Him. Now it is in 
reference to this necessary use of the symbol in 
religion, a use made necessary by the constitution 



SAINT AXD ntAGE WORSHIP. 211 

of our nature, tliat God, to prevent tliis nse from 
passing into a fatal abnse, to prevent lis from be- 
ing so entangled in the meshes of sense by this 
religions nse of the symbol as to defeat the very 
object of religion, has ordained, by a positive and 
arbitrary enactment, that we shall not in any man- 
ner worship the symbol — that we shall not make for 
ourselves that particular kind of symbol called an 
image, and that we shall not bow down before, or 
in any way worship any symbol, natural, manufac- 
tured, or instituted. And in reference to this par- 
ticular and special commandment. He declares that 
He is ^jealous God. And in conformity with this 
attribute He represents Himself as a Husband, and 
when His people violate this arbitrary enactment 
they are said to be guilty of adultery. Now apply 
to this Divine representation of the relation which 
we sustain to Jehovah upon this subject the plausi- 
ble theory which we have been examining. You 
oflFer to the creatures of God, to Angels and Saints, 
the living symbols of the Divine power and good- 
ness, and to the images of these — the dead symbols 
of symbols — all the external forms of religious wor- 
ship which you can pay to the invisible Deity. 
You place them in the Temples of God, you erect 
shrines to them there, you bow down, you kneel 
down before them, you pray to them, you invoke 
their protection. You can render no higher ap]3ar- 
ent service to the Deity. What, then, is the dis- 
tinction between the worship which you give to the 
symbols, and that which you offer to God? The 
difference consists, you say, in a more profound, and 



212 OLD AXD NEW. 

sacred, and reverential devotion of tlie heart to 
Jehovah, the Lord whom we thus honor in the per- 
sons of His Saints, and b j the means of His images. 
Is not this fearfully to play with the Divine com- 
mand ? Is not this wantonly to provoke the Most 
High to jealousy? As well may you tell a married 
woman to love and take to herself another than her 
absent lord, and to receive and treat him in all ex- 
ternal respects as her lord, only cautioning her that 
all the time this commerce continues, the innermost 
chamber of her heart, a more sacred and holy affec- 
tion, must be reserved for him who is her husband, 
and then say that this would not be adultery, as to 
contend that the religious worship of Angels, Saints, 
and images, in God's holy temple is not idolatry. 
The cases are precisely parallel, and that parallel 
has been employed and presented, in a great many 
instances, by the Divine Spouse Himself, in many 
passages of His holy Word. What were the golden 
calves of Aaron but manufactured symbols of the 
God who had brought the Israelites out of Egypt ? 
They were desired by the people, and made for the 
express purpose of aiding their devotions, of help- 
ing them to worship the invisible Jehovah. But 
they were not the less an abomination unto the 
Lord. Were not the calves of Jeroboam "who 
made Israel to sin," acknowledged symbols of the 
God whom, for political reasons, they would no 
longer worship at Jerusalem ? Does not the very 
manufacture of every idol that was ever made pre- 
suppose the principle that the honor to be paid to it 
is to be referred to its prototype ? And did not all 



SAINT AJS^D IMAGE WORSHIP. 213 

the gods of the heathen occupy in their imagina- 
tion precisely the place now assigned to the Saints 
and Ano-els in this new theoloo:y, viz., as bein2:s in- 
termediate between men and the Supreme Ruler of 
the Universe, and was not all the worship which 
they paid to them relative only? This was the 
nature of idolatry in its beginning, everywhere; 
and this continued to be its nature with the refined 
and intelligent always. But the world attests the 
truth, and thereby witnesses the necessity of God's 
positive prohibition of any religious worship to any 
symbol ; that this first departure from the integrity 
of the Divine appointment has been followed by an 
increasing sensualitj^ and stupidity in the masses, 
which have brought them at last to bow down their 
souls to dumb idols as though they were gods in- 
deed. Thus, the Almighty instituted the sacrifice 
of beasts as a symbol of the blood of the everlast- 
ing covenant by which the souls of men were to be 
redeemed. The Egyptian, at first, worshipped this 
symbol, as the means of worshipping the invisible 
Redeemer, whom it represented. Presently, and by 
degrees, he forgot the meaning of the symbol he 
had accustomed himself to worship. The religious 
homage of the Spiritual and the Unseen, which God 
had instituted as the means of saving him from 
a hopeless captivity to sense, was substituted by a 
service which rendered sense more powerful than 
ever. Sense thus reinforced by a spurious religion 
triumphed utterly over reason, and the Ox be- 
came a God to the creature who was made in the 
likeness of the Infinite Jehovah ! So the devout 



214 OLD AND KEW. 

and refined "worsliipper of symbols may pay to his 
God and Saviour a profoimder internal reverence 
than that which he professes to offer to St. Mary } 
but to the masses unenlightened by the pure Gospel 
of Christ, a trust in Saints, images, and shrines, and 
relics, has, in a large degree, taken the place of trust 
in God ; and the worship of these minor Deities has 
superseded the worship of the Father Almighty. 
And to the most refined and spiritual, is religious 
worship so cheap a thing ; is it such an easy service 
that we can control it as we will ? Is our religious 
devotion so great that we can afford to portion it 
out into parcels, assigning one measure here and 
another there, and the largest share to God the Cre- 
ator ? And when we have made this partition, can 
we be right sure that the several portions which we 
have bestowed upon the creatures will not equal or 
exceed that which we have allotted or which we 
find ourselves enabled to pay to the Father of Spir- 
its ? Has it not always been found a hard task to 
worship God enough, and to worshij) Him aright, 
while the service of a creature is attended with no 
such difiiculty? '*Lord teach us to pray." ''Lord 
1 believe, help thou my unbelief," is the language 
of an ingenuous spirit conscious of its weakness and 
insuflSciency. To that infirmity of our nature which 
demands a Mediator between God and man, the 
Almighty has stooped in the adorable mystery of 
the incarnation. There all the wants and all the 
yearnings of humanity are satisfied, while all possi- 
bility of idolatry is precluded. For while we wor- 
ship the Mediator, the Man, Christ Jesus, we wor- 



SAIXT AND niAGE WORSHIP. 215 

ship in the same person, without any transfer, the 
Supreme Lord of all things. Shall we improve this 
wisdom of God by interposing, between God and ns, 
created mediators to divide our homage and to share 
with Him the devotion we can pay? Is onr devo- 
tion so rich, so fervent, and so full that we can 
make this disposition of it? The Almighty has de- 
cided this question. The jealous God has put away 
all theories, and all plausibilities, and all questions 
upon this subject, by the positive and minute in- 
junction to offer no sort of religious worship to any 
creature, to any symbol, natural or artificial, upon 
any pretence. 

This notice of the incarnation brings us to the latest 
stage of the development of idolatrous worship 
among Christian people. The most recent champion 
of this and kindred corruptions says, upon this sub- 
ject : " Tlie treatment of the Arian and Monophysite 
errors, being of this character, became the natural 
introduction of the citltits Sanctorum ' for in pro- 
portion as words descriptive of created mediation 
ceased to be applied to our Lord, so was a room 
opened for created mediators." 

''Tlie Arian controversy had led to another de- 
velopment, which confirmed, by anticipation, tlie 
cultus to which St. Augustine's doctrine pointed." 
" Christ, in rising, raises His Saints with Him to the 
right hand of power. They become instinct with 
His life, of one body with his flesh, sons, kings, 
Gods. He is in theni; because He is in human 
nature ; and He communicates to them that nature, 
deified by becoming His, that it may deify them. He 



216 OLD AND NEW. 

is in them by the presence of His Spirit, and in them 
is He seen. They have those titles of honor by par- 
ticipation, which are properly His. Without mis- 
giving we may apply to them the most sacred lan- 
guage of Psalmists and Prophets. ' Tliou art a Priest 
forever,' may be said of St. Polycarp or St. Martin, 
as well as of their Lord. ' He hath dispersed abroad, 
he hath given to the poor,' was fulfilled in St. Law- 
rence. ' I have found David my servant,' was said 
first of the king of Israel, belongs really to Christ, is 
transferred again by grace to His Yicegerents upon 
earth. ' I have given thee the nations for thine in- 
heritance,' is the prerogative of Popes." Quoting 
Athanasius, he says : " In this passage it is almost 
said that the glorified Saints will partake In the hom- 
age paid by Angels to Christ, the true object of all 
worship ; and at least a reason is suggested by it for 
the Angel's shrinking in the Apocalypse from the 
homage of St. John." Then quoting again the same 
father, he adds, ^\^i a gloss as palpably false as the 
preceding : " It would appear to be distinctly stated 
in this passage that those who are known to be God's 
adopted sons in Christ, are Jit objects of worship on 
account of Him who is in them ; a doctrine which 
both interprets and accounts for the invocation of 
Saints, the observance of relics, and the religious 
veneration in which even the living have sometimes 
been held, who, being saintly, were distinguished by 
miraculous gifts. Worship, then, is the necessary 
correlative of glory ; and in the same sense in which 
created natures can share in the Creator's incommu- 
nicable glory, do they also share in that worship 



SAINT AND IMAGE WORSHIP. 217 

which IS his property alone." (Newman on Develop., 
pp. 185, 186, 187.) See also pages 168, 169, where 
it is said, " In a later age the worship of images was 
introduced. The principle of the distinction on 
which these observances were pions in Christianity 
and superstitious in Paganism, is implied in such 
passages of TertuUian and others as speak of evil 
spirits lurking under the pagan statues." 

The system here put forth is a consistent one, 
which does not pretend to evade or trifle with the 
second commandment, but boldly promulgates a 
formal repeal of it. It is remarkable that this theory 
is identical in principle with that of Carlyle, and 
upon which is founded his favorite principle of Hero- 
worship — his heroes, Mohammed, Cromwell, ITapo- 
leon, &c., being the true incarnation of Deity, and 
therefore to be worshipped for the Divinity that is 
in them. It is remarkable, too, that both systems are 
coincident in principle with what has ever been pro- 
nounced by the impartial sentiment of mankind as 
the last and lowest point of human degradation, the 
action of the Roman Senate and people in deifying 
their emperors, and permitting them to receive reli- 
gious adoration. 

According to this latest development of human 
wisdom, improving the wisdom of God, there can be 
no such thing as idolatry ; and the 2d article of the 
MORAL LAW is a dead letter, or rather an impertinent 
intrusion upon the Christian system. Jesus Christ. 
by His Spirit, is in every Christian ; He is more 
especially present in His Priests ; He is yet more 
remarkably present in His one High Priest, " the 

19 



218 OLD AND XEW. 

inheritor of the nations.'^'' The scale of Divinities is 
thus comj)lete. Xo longer need Christian men to 
seek diligently for the capacity to worship God, who 
is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth. Much easier will 
it be for them to find their God in these living sym- 
bols of His power and grace, in these sensible and 
ever-present incarnations of Deity. To worship 
these will be an easy task, and as the Invisible 
Supreme is gradually forgotten in the worship of 
these His representatives, the last stage of human 
degradation will once more be reached, and Chris- 
tianity will die out of the world ; and the last effort 
of infinite love and wisdom to redeem and elevate 
humanity will have proved an utter and a hopeless 
failure. 

That this dreadful consummation would not be 
far off, if Romanism were the only representative of 
Christianity in the world, there are many melan- 
choly testimonies to prove. The Psalter, that noble 
and inspired form of devotion, prepared by Almighty 
God Himself, as the fitting vehicle in which to ad- 
dress to Him the homage of His redeemed people, 
has been profanely paraphrased by a Romish Saint, 
and wherever the name of God occurs that of Alary 
is substituted. The Te Deum, the glorious Hymn of 
the Ages to the Triune God, has received the same 
blasphemous treatment; and both of these are pop- 
ular forms of devotion to Mary in Romish coun- 
tries. 

In sad and humiliating agreement with these and 
innumerable like testimonies is the ofiicial and au- 



SAINT AND IMAGE WORSHIP. 219 

thoritatiye teaching of Pope Gregory XVI., in an 
Encyclical letter dated August 15, 1832 : " But that 
all these events may have a successful and happy 
issue, let us raise our eyes and hands to the most 
Blessed Virgin Mary, who alone destroys heresies, 
who is our greatest hope, yea, the entire ground of 
oijR hope." 

The same Pope, in the year 1840, granted an In- 
dulgence of one hundred years to every one who 
shall recite the following prayer : " O Immaculate 
Queen of Heaven and of Angels ! I adore you. It 
is you who have delivered me from hell. It is you 
from whom I look for all my salvation." 

St. Liguori, in his " Glories of Mary," thus teaches 
the people to worship the Roman Goddess. " Dis- 
pensatrix of the Divine grace, you save whom you 
please; to you, then, I commit myself, that the 
enemy may not destroy me." (P. 100.) " St. An- 
selm, to increase our confidence in Mary, assures 
us that our prayers will often be more speedily 
heard in invoking her name, than in calling on that 
of Jesus Christ." (P. 96.) 

Encouraged by this authority of two Saints, the 
modern Saint quoting with apj)robation the ancient 
one. Archbishop Kenrick, of Philadelphia, carries 
forward the work of development by teaching his 
people in the " l^ew Month of Mary" to say : " O 
Mother of Mercy ! thou dost not repel any one who 
flies to thee for refuge. . . . Thou dost interpose 
between them and between Jesus, thy Divine Son, 
our Lord and Judge : thou dost shield them from 



220 OLD AND KEW. 

the inflictions of his severe justice." (P. 153.) 
Here, and in the general tone of the book, Christ is 
removed from His place as " The One Mediator be- 
tween God and men," and a more compassionate, 
tender, and efficient Mediatrix proposed as the 
object of Christian worship. 

To exhibit this system in its nakedness, is to ex- 
pose it to the scorn and indignation of all right- 
thinking men. As yet there are multitudes of such 
men, even in the corrupt communion which toler- 
ates this grossness ; and the reflecting members of 
that communion should bless God for the great 
religious Reformation that has kept alive, not only 
around the Komisli Church, but within her own 
bosom, a healthier public sentiment than she could 
herself produce. By the resisting force of that pub- 
lic sentiment, both around and within her, she is 
saved from the utter pollution which is the natural 
and proximate issue of the errors she has canonized 
and adopted. 

Our only security from these and from all other 
destructive errors, is a close and loyal adherence to 
the Divine prescription, an obedient submission to 
the wisdom that is from above. That Wisdom says 
— ''Thou shalt have none other gods but Me;" 
''There is one God, and One Mediator between 
God and men, the man Christ Jesus." No minor 
Deities, no inferior intelligences, no mere human 
mediators between man and the Supreme, no wor- 
ship of Angels, or of Saints, is prescribed or allow^ed 
by the Wisdom from on high. Angels and the 



SAINT AND EVIAGE WORSHIP. 221 

powers of nature are ministering servants to tlie 
heirs of salvation. The Saints are our brethren. 
Is^either can be the object of any sort or degree of 
religious adoration, without impiety and rebellion 
against God. ''Thou shalt not bow down before 
them, nor worship them, for I, the Lord thy God, 
am a jealous God." 

That other form in which human wisdom has un- 
dertaken to improve the wisdom of the Most High, 
by assuming for each adventurous and gifted man a 
capacity to be a competent discoverer and revealer 
of religious truth, regardless of the aids which God 
has provided, has nearly run itself out to its bitter 
end, a cold and appalling skepticism. The better 
votaries of this system see the dark abyss they are 
approaching, and instinctively recoil from it. They 
eagerly ask for some basis for faith besides the indi- 
vidual judgment — for something stronger, deeper, 
and more enduring than mere personal opinion. 
The ever-changing phases of these private fancies 
have mocked them long enough. They even ven- 
ture to inquire for a historic faith, and for a his- 
toric Church, for the human soul to lean upon. 

This is the very need and yearning of humanity 
which God has provided for. Eomanism, as we 
have seen, pretends to satisfy this need, simply by 
removing the difficulty a little further off, so that it 
may not be so distinctly observed. It devolves the 
whole business of finding and publishing a religion, 
from time to time, upon the Pope and such other 
Bishops as may happen to concur wdth him in opin- 

19* 



222 OLD AND NEW. 

ion ; all other men must bow down tlieir sonls in 
abject and nnlnquiring submission to the decisions 
of this human tribunal. 

The Wisdom from above meets the exigency 
of man's condition and nature in a way which 
leaves his noblest prerogative, freedom, in all its 
integrity. 

The Faith witnessed by the Scriptures, imbodied 
in the Sacraments, and compendiously set forth in a 
verbal formula to be by all remembered and con- 
fessed, was once for all delivered. We receive this 
faith, abundantly accredited by human testimony, 
upon the authority of God who delivered it. There 
is, therefore, no slavish subjection of one human 
mind to another, but only that reasonable submission 
of man to his Creator which is perfect freedom. 

With the comforting and quieting assurance of 
Divine Authority for that which is believed, the 
Christian faith comes also to the soul with that most 
delightful and cordial sense of community in the 
same faith, with the whole body of Christian people 
in every land and in every age. 

The Christian revelation declares that the Faith is 
one, with the same distinctness with which it declares 
that God is one. Ever since the day of Pentecost 
there has been a Church, a body of believers, in the 
world, professing the Christian Faith. Now, if the 
word of revelation is true, the saving Faith must 
have been the same in the first century, and in the 
fourth, and in the tenth, and in the nineteenth. 
Otherwise the Faith would not be one. Find, then, 



SAINT AND IMAGE WORSHIP. 223 

the Church which lias professed this one faith from 
the beginning, and you have found the historic 
Church and the historic faith which rest upon the 
EocK Christ Jesus. No historic Church or Faith 
which do not go back to this sure foundation are of 
any value. Any faith which leaves out one substan- 
tive article of the old Creed, or adds one to it, stands 
branded as false and spurious by the word of the Al- 
mighty. It is not The one Faith once delivered. 

The alleged variations in the historic Creed are 
only shorter or fuller expressions of the same sub- 
stantive truths. The briefest authentic copy of the 
ancient faith contains the same truths as the formulae 
of Nice and Constantinople. It is still the " One 
Faith," expressed in so few particulars that the 
meanest intellect can apprehend it, and yet so com- 
prehensive as to embrace and satisfy the essential 
needs of all humanity. While it thus assures us, 
upon sufficient authority, of the certainty of those 
things which are at the foundation of Divine and 
human relations, with Fatherly care for the largest 
and freest exercise of the human mind, the Giver of 
this Faith has left the whole range of human knowl- 
edge, beyond these essential foundations, to the 
fortune of human effort and discovery. 

To verify this historic Church and historic faith, 
demands the patient and earnest exercise of all the 
best powers that God has given to each one of His 
children. To refuse to employ these powers in this 
noblest of all inquiries, to take our religion from 
the arbitrary dictation of a fallible and interested 



224 OLD AND NEW. 

fellow-mortal, or to attain it as an ingenious guess- 
work of our own, is a fearful abuse of the glorious 
heritage of humanity. 

" Tnrs SAiTH the Lokd, Stand ye in the ways, 

AND SEE, AND ASK FOR THE OlD PaTHS, WHEEE IS 
THE GOOD WAY, 



APPEJiDIX. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

Mr. Newman's book on Development, and Bishop Ken- 
rick's work on The Primacy, are the two principal efforts 
of Romish Theology in this age to vindicate its claims by 
argument before the Protestant community. These are the 
storehouses from which the popular preachers and pam- 
phleteers draw their weapons of proselytism. Adopting 
very different lines of argument, they together cover the 
whole ground of Romanism. The brief examiuation of 
each which follows, appeared at the time of the publication 
of the book reviewed. Both are here republished, because 
it is believed that they sufficiently expose the real char- 
acter and utter sophistry of these two works, and will 
enable any intelligent Protestant to read them with a 
discriminating perception of their failure to establish 
any thing. For an exposure in detail of their varied 
misrepresentations, recourse must be had to the admirable 
works of Bishop Hopkins, of the American Church. 

Or, as Bishop Kenrick's book, especially, is but a rehash 
of what had been often written before on that side, an 
abundant confutation of it all will be found in the older 
English Divines, — Bramhall, Taylor, Bull, and other wor- 
thies of renown. 



226 APPENDIX. 



REMARKS OIsT MR. NEWMAN^^S LATE WORK ON THE 
DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 



This book is entirely unique, and on that account 
deserves some notice. It is the work of one who was 
once a Churchman, and who seems to understand 
the main features of the Church system. The contro- 
yersial works of Roman Catholics are usually put 
forth by persons who exhibit a profound ignorance 
of the Church system, and who only attack, under 
the name of Protestantism, that wild licentiousness 
of private judgment which converts each Christian 
man into an infallible pope, and has at once dis- 
graced Christianity by the most extravagant here- 
sies, and divided Christian people into innumerable 
warring sects. Of course, the arguments of such 
controversialists are aside from any issue which can 
be accepted by a Churchman. Frequently they are 
a repetition of the arguments which the Churchman 
uses against this same error of the times, and which, 
with equal cogency, he presses against that very 
Eomanism that uses them. The work of Mr. 'Sew- 
man is therefore a novelty, and was, in some degree, 
a desideratum in polemical discussion. The effect 
of the work upon the Church, and upon the cause 
of truth, will be beneficial. Apart from its imme- 



227 

diate effect upon the sickly faction which tne author 
had raised up in the Church, and to which it is 
directly addressed, it will serve to show to Church- 
men how impregnable is their position, how weak 
and impotent are the weapons which can be directed 
against them, even when tempered by the most 
skilful hand and wielded by the strongest arm. 

The author opens his work by an introduction, in 
which he proposes the problem, — How are we to 
understand what is Christianity ? He suggests sev- 
eral theories or hypotheses, as the solution of this 
problem, and disposes of each in its turn as insuffi- 
cient. He then brmgs forward his own theory, 
which is that of Development; and his book is 
intended to show the application and sufficiency of 
this theory. 

The first thing that the author undertakes, in 
pursuance of this theory, and to complete the sym- 
metry of his system, is to develope an authority com- 
petent to work out and to sanction all future devel- 
opments — thus realizing the Indian hypothesis for 
the stability of the earth. The earth, according to 
Indian philosophy, rests upon the back of a huge 
elephant. And what does the elephant rest upon ? 
Why, upon the back of a tortoise. And what sup- 
ports the tortoise? ]S"othing. A very satisfactory 
and imposing system, for those who do not like the 
trouble of thinking. 

It is a most remarkable and significant omission 
in a writer occupying the position which Mr. New- 
man does, and putting forth a work so elaborate as 
this, that in his enumeration of the hypotheses by 



228 APPENDIX. 

whicli it has been proposed to solve his problem, lie 
does not mention or allude to the fact, that there 
exists a Divine Record, which gives the precise an- 
swer to his inquiry — which tells ns, and which was 
given for the very purpose of telling us, what is 
Christianity. And this hypothesis, thus singularly 
passed by, had been proposed upon no slight au- 
thority. The communion Which the author had 
just abandoned emphatically maintains that " Holy 
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salva- 
tion.""^ But the same solution of the problem had 
been given by much higher authority than this. 
"What is Truth? has been the problem of all time. 
The Divine Saviour has furnished the distinct and 
sufficient answer to the inquiry. Addressing the 
Almighty Father, he says, " Thy Word is Truth." 
And because this Divine and immutable Truth is 
clothed in human language, and is therefore con- 
nected with the ordinary uncertainties of that lan- 
guage, and may need a common interpreter, there- 
fore, " The Church hath Authority in controversies 
of Faith ; and yet it is not lawful for the Church 
to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's word 
written. "f Here is the Church's theory for the 
resolution of Mr. Newman's problem, drawn out in 
full, and amply sufficient for the accomplishment of 
its purpose, as any one may prove by an honest ap- 
plication of the theory to the solution of the problem, 
in w^hole or in any of its parts. The remarkable 
omission of Mr. N. to notice this theory at all, is 

« Article VI. f Article XX. 



ON Newman's development. 229 

pregnant proof of two assertions which we liave 
made. The first is, that the Chnrch ground is thus 
most emphatically confessed to be unassailable. 
The second assertion is, that this book is addressed, 
not to Churchmen, but to the weak and credulous 
men in the English and American Church, who had 
already been led away by the author from the strong 
foundations of the Church to some private fancies 
of their own ; and this book, with its labored learn- 
ing and subtlety, is intended as tlie lure^ which may 
seduce them into an irreclaimable connection with 
the Roman Schism. This view of the author's de- 
sign is confirmed by the fact, that this work appeals 
throughout to former positions of his own, or of his 
friends, as established principles upon which to 
found an argument. 

Such being ascertained to be the character and 
design of this work, a Churchman might well be 
excused from the labor of its further examination. 
But it may serve to illustrate the truth, to look a 
little further into the curious developments of error. 

One general and remarkable feature of the work is 
the continued effort by which it tries to obliterate 
the distinction between FAITH and CREDULITY, 
by mystifying and covering up the true foundations 
of human belief. It freely grants to infidelity all 
that it claims on the ground of reason^ and only re- 
serves for Christianity the religious instinct which 
demands a religion, and the presumptive conclusion 
for those who are raised under the shadow of the 
Papacy, that the sort of Christianity which they see 
to exist as a fact^ will do better than Paganism or 
^^ 20 



230 APPENDIX. 

Mohammedism. Thus the intellect, man's noblest 
endowment, is nnconditionally surrendered to the 
devil ; while nothing is retained for God but those 
feelings of awe, and reverence, and fear, which the 
vilest mummeries of superstition have alike proved 
themselves capable of inspiring. This alliance be- 
tween Romanism and Infidelity has long been al- 
leged, and is only brought out more clearly and prom- 
inently by this author, because his former position 
compelled him to define more distinctly the ground 
of his present apostasy. The alliance is not an un- 
natural one. The impartial father of both is quite 
willing that his ofi*spring should divide the world 
between them. 

The single thread which connects together the 
multifarious parts of this refined and subtle treatise, 
is the application to his subject of the physical dis- 
tinction between a development and a corruption of 
organized bodies. The application is, that a devel- 
opment, although a change, is healthy, and a con- 
stituent part of the truth, while a corruption tends 
to and terminates in the destruction of the truth. 
The conclusion from this application is, that as the 
Church of Rome is still a living body, with points of 
resemblance to the primitive Church, therefore all 
the changes which she has introduced are^ not cor- 
ruptions^ hut healthy developments. 

Supposing the analogy thus employed to be capa- 
ble of any useful application to the subject in hand, 
it is obvious that this conclusion is very far beyond 
the warrant contained in the premises. According 
to this conclusion, there could be no evidence of a 



ON Newman's detelopment. 231 

corruption, until the work of corruption was com- 
pleted, and the thing corrupted was gone — dissolved 
into its original elements. To take the conclusion 
back to the sphere from which it was derived, you 
could have no evidence, according to this philosophy, 
of the corruption of a human body, while any traces 
of the original form remained. An enormous wen 
may be appropriating to itself all the vital powers 
of the system, but the subject of this excrescence is 
still a man ; he is alive, and the ordinary functions 
have not yet been suspended. Therefore, say our 
author's conclusion, the wen is no corruption at all. 
It is a healthy development. It is sacred as every 
part of the individual is. Tlie surgeons have no 
more right to cut off the wen than they have to kill 
the mran. A cancerous ulcer has some pretty sensi- 
ble marks of a corruption, — but its unhappy victim 
has not yet been destroyed. The powers of nature 
are strong, and oppose a vigorous resistance to the 
malady. Skilful physicians have drawn around the 
sore a sort of cordon sanitaire^ so as to arrest, for a 
time, its fatal progress ; therefore, say the meta- 
physics of our author, the cancer is no corruption, — 
it is a development. It is an essential part of the 
individual, and you must love and cherish and 
admire it, as you do the person to whom it be- 
longs. 

The same mode of arguing, applied to different 
religious institutions, will prove that Paganism was 
a development of the Patriarchal faith and practice. 
It will prove that the idolatry of the ten tribes, so 
long as the kingdom of Israel lasted, was a healthy 



232 APPENDIX. 

development of the institutions of the Pentateuch — 
the calves which Jeroboam set up at Dan and at 
Bethel, being developments of the cherubim upon the 
mercj-seat. So Pharisaism, and Sadduceeism were 
alike legitimate developments of the religion of 
the Old Testament. Mohammedism, Unitarianism, 
Romanism, and Mormonism, may, by the same 
argument, be shown to be developments of Chris- 
tianity. 

The conclusions of our author being thus seen to 
be unwarranted by the analogy which he employs 



the whole argument of his book is at an end. This 
is the whole of it. 

It would be useless to examine the specific appli- 
cations of an argument which, so evidently, can con- 
clude nothing. But many of these specific applica- 
tions are remarkable for the same looseness and in- 
determinateness. For instance, in ascertaining the 
original materials out of which the present system 
of the Church of Rome has been developed, he does 
not go to the Christian institute for information, or 
even to the early Christian writers. But he takes 
the testimony of the enemies and maligners of Chris- 
tianity, who confounded our holy religion with the 
worst of the Eastern superstitions ; and he concludes 
that the existing system which is most like to their 
representations of Christianity, is the very system of 
the early Christians ! Again, he takes the popular 
religionism of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, as 
the pure truth of God, and shows how easily some 
of the objectionable features of the Roman system 
may be developed from the notions of those times ! 



ON Newman's development. 233 

The real source of some of these developments is 
ingeniously displayed by our author, in the follow- 
ing passage : 

"Not in one principle or doctrine only, but in its 
whole system, Montanism is a remarkable anticipa- 
tion or presage of developments which soon began 
to show themselves in the Church, though they were 
not perfected for centuries after. Its rigid mainte- 
nance of the original creed, yet its admission of a 
development, at least in the ritual, has just been in- 
stanced in the person of TertuUian. Equally Catho- 
lic in their principle, whether in fact or anticipation, 
were most of the other peculiarities of Montanism : 
its rigorous fasts, its visions, its commendation of 
celibacy and martyrdom, its contempt of temporal 
goods, its penitential discipline, and its centre of 
unity. The doctrinal determinations and the eccle- 
siastical usages of the middle ages are the true fulfil- 
ment of its self-willed and abortive attempts at pre- 
cipitating the growth of the Church. The favoi 
shown to it for a while by Pope Victor, is an evi- 
dence of its resemblance to orthodoxy ! !" 

Again : " Though ascetics existed from the be- 
ginning, the notion of a religion higher than the 
Christianity of the many, was first prominently 
brought forward by the Gnostics, Montanists, N^o- 
vatians, and Manichees. And while the Prophets of 
the Montanists prefigure the Church's Doctors, and 
their inspiration^ her infallibility.^ and their revela- 
tions, her developments, and the heresiarch himself 
is the unsightly anticipation of St. Francis — in No- 
yatian, again, we discern the aspiration of nature 

20-^ 



234 



APPENDIX. 



after sucli creations of grace as St. Benedict or St. 
Bruno."— P. 165-6. 

What does all this amount to, but the precious 
admission, that the follies and the monstrosities of a 
sickly fancy, at which the Church revolted with 
loathing in the days of TertuUian, became a part of 
the popular and approved religion of an easier and 
a more accommodating age? 

Elsewhere, the author presents us with the devel- 
opment of another doctrine, Purgatory — which he 
derives, by a secondary development, from a previ- 
ously developed figment, the irremissibility of post- 
baptismal sin. He says, " Thus we see how, as time 
went on, the doctrine of Purgatory was opened upon 
the apprehension of the Church, as a portion or form 
of penance for sins committed after Baptism." And 
then, after quoting a former work of his own in ref- 
erence to the same subject, he says : " The writer 
considers the growth of the doctrine as an instance 
of the action of private judgment ; whereas, I should 
now call it, an instance of the mind of the Church, 
working out dogmatic truths from iinplicit feelings 
under secret supernatural guidanceP — P, 192. And 
presently he shows us the importance of this devel- 
opment, when he tells us that '' there is, it is true, 
a higher class of motives which will be felt by the 
saint ; but if we would raise an army of devoted 
men, we must be provided with the motives which 
keenly affect the many. It is in vain to look out for 
missionaries for China or Africa, or evangelists for 
our great towns, or Christian attendants on the sick, 
or teachers of the ignorant, on such a scale of num- 



OK Newman's development. 235 

bers as the need requires, without the doctrine of 
Purgatory." — P, 19-i. That is to say, this doctrine 
of Purgatory, and its kindred doctrine of indulgences, 
is God's truth imjrroved ! and Christians, who, by 
the Gospel system, are to be transformed into the 
image of Christ their Sayiour, and to do good for 
the sake of Him who loyed them and gaye Himself 
for them, are, by this amended scheme, retained as 
base hirelings, chaffering with their Maker, and 
taking accurate note of each good deed they per- 
form, in order to charge it in account-current with 
Him. 

These are fair specimens of the general tone and 
character of this work, which is a more candid 
ayowal, and a more elaborate defence of the essential 
iniquities of Romanism, than can generally be found 
in the controversial writers of that sect. Usually, 
these gentlemen exhibit much more ingenuity in 
covering up and glossing over, than strength in de- 
fending the peculiarities of their system. I cannot 
conclude this part of our notice of Mr. Newman's 
book, without quoting one more very striking pas- 
sage in reference to the worship of Mary : 

'' Thus there was a wonder in heaven ; a throne 
was seen far above all created powers, mediatorial, 
intercessory ; a title archetypal ; a crown bright as 
the mornino* star : a o:lory issuino: from the Eternal 
Throne ; robes pure as the heavens, and a sceptre 
over all ; and who was the predestined heir of that 
majesty ? Who was that wisdom, and what was her 
name \ "^ ^ ^ The vision is found in the Apoc- 
alypse, — a woman clothed with the sun, and the 



236 APPENDIX. 

moon nnder her feet, and npon her head a crown of 
twelve stars. The votaries of Mary do not exceed 
the true faith unless the blasphemers of her Son 
came np to it. The Church of Rome is not idol- 
atrous, unless Arianism is orthodoxy." — P, 188. 

But if Arianism, instead of being orthodoxy, was 
idolatry, then, by the very parallel of this author, 
and according to his own showing, the Romish wor- 
ship of Mary is not less so. For he only contends 
that Mary is placed no higher in Romish theology, 
than the Son occupied in the Arian. The Fathers, 
indeed, had determined that the Arian hypothesis, 
however high it exalted the Son, because it did not 
regard Him as One with the Eternal Father, was a 
heresy. But how did the Fathers of Nicsea prove 
their position ? How did they show Arianism to be 
heresy ? K Christianity be, as this author contends, 
a new system of Polytheism, — if it be the revelation 
of a descending scale of Divinities, the objects of 
human worship in such degree as the rank of each 
may demand, then the Arian hypothesis will do very 
well. It fits exactly in such a system, and accords 
quite agreeablj^ with certain passages of Scripture. 
The only want of symmetry in the system, would be 
that Christ was placed the second in this scale of 
Divinities, — a position which should have been oc- 
cupied by his mother ; but the " cultus^'^ of Mary 
had not been " developed." But the very thing 
which proved Arianism to be false, was the fact that 
Christianity is essentially the revelation of One God, 
— of One only object of religious worship. The test 
argument, therefore, which developed the heresy of 



ON Newman's dev]e:lopment. 237 

Arianism was, that it was idolatry ; — that it required 
the worship of a creature / — that it was an incipient 
polytheism, akin to the old Pagan system, because it 
made Christ to be less than God, and yet the object 
of religious worship, of Divine honors. This system 
is identical in principle, as is now allowed, with the 
Romish " cultus'^ of Mary and the Saints. If Arian- 
ism was not idolatry, then you take away the foun- 
dation of the doctrine of the Trinity. And if Arian- 
ism was idolatry, then, by the unwitting confession 
of this new champion of Romanism, the worship of 
Mary is idolatry. 

But we leave these points of detail in Mr. N.'s 
book, to bestow a brief notice upon the general po- 
sition assumed by him and others on behalf of the 
Roman Communion. That position presents a dis- 
tinct and intelligible issue between the Church and 
the bodies which have separated from her unity. 
That position is, that the revelation which God has 
been pleased to make of His truth for the salvation 
of the world, is an inchoate and imperfect system, 
which requires for its completion a gradual develop- 
ment. This is the position alike assumed and insist- 
ed upon by Unitarians, Rationalists, and Romanists. 
The first two make the agent of development to be 
hitman reason / the last, as we have seen, makes the 
agent to be '' implicit feelings under secret supernat- 
ural guidance^ Either modification of the system 
will furnish, if admitted, the sufficient warrant for 
any folly, or for any enormity which the fancy of 
men or the machinations of Satan may suggest. 

In opposition to all this, the Church maintains that 



238 APPENBIX. 

all sAYixa TRUTH must come from God by a direct 
and immediate reTelation. This is the way of Life, 
which God has made known. Man conld not have 
discovered — man cannot iynjprove it. The Church 
adopts the language of her divine Saviour, and says, 
" Thy Word is Truth." But, " as Christianity is 
both social and dogmatic, and intended for all ages, 
it must," in order to preserve unity of Faith, have 
an authoritative expounder. This expounder Chris- 
tianity provided, by the institution of the Church, 
which, from the beginning, has determined the points 
of Faith diffused through the Scriptures, and upoH 
which men must agree ; while upon other points a 
large diversity of opinion is allowed. The institu- 
tion of the Church as a society made these doctrin- 
al decisions necessary ; for by Faith we are saved, 
and the things which are to be believed must be 
known, and to be known they must be determined 
by a common and competent authority. The whole 
Church is the only common and competent author- 
ity, for it represents the intelligence and the person- 
al responsibility of each individual Christian. Its 
decisions, therefore, made and adhered to from the 
beginning, j)resent the very highest degree of cer- 
tainty, short of demonstration, at which human 
knowledge can arrive. And they become, by the 
happy organization of the Church, the common 
property of the whole body of Christian people, so 
that young and old, learned and ignorant, may 
know them alike. These decisions, upon the points 
of Faith which a man must believe in order to sal- 
vation, the Church had made even before the whole 



ON Newman's development. 239 

of the JS'ew Testament was written. For men have 
been baptized into but one saving faith from the be- 
ginning. This faith is set forth at large in the di- 
vine record — the Word of God, — w^hence the Church 
continues to draw her warrant for the imposition of 
its several articles^ as terrns of salvation. The Apos- 
tles' Creed, or its equivalent — the Nicene Creed — is 
now, and ever has been, the baptismal formula of 
Faith. And this confession, conj oined with Baptism, 
makes a man a Christian, by the judgment of the 
whole Church, whether he professes to know or to 
believe any thing else. Thus the question of Essen- 
tials has been determined, authoritatively, by this 
most august tribunal. And this determination is 
not a mere abstract judgment. It has been acted 
upon every day, and in the case of every Baptism 
administered in the Church. This same determina- 
tion has secured all along the unity of faith. Unity 
of FORM was provided for likewise in the beginning, 
by the Divine institution of the Ministry, in its three 
essential and prescribed orders. "While, in this in- 
stance also, a wide field, beyond the institution thus 
prescribed, has been left for the exercise of individ- 
uality, and for the changing exigencies of times and 
circumstances, by the discretionary authority inher- 
ent in the Church, and in the several parts thereof. 
So UNITY of RITES, SO far as such unity is desirable or 
necessary, is attained by the Divine prescription of 
two Sacraments ; and the same opportunity for 
reasonable diversity results from the power of the 
Church and of its parts to decree rites and ceremo- 
nies additional. What, in all these cases, is Divine, 



240 APPENDIX. 

is of Faitli, and unchangeable. But that which is 
human, — the developments, — are matters of propri- 
ety and expediency, may change with circumstances, 
and must be tried ever by the unchangeable Truth — • 
the Divine Word. 

Such is the Church's system. But it is at once 
too simple and too rigid to be satisfactory to secta- 
ries of any name. One class of them will brook no 
barrier whatever to the unchecked supremacy of 
their idolized Reason. Another class desire the op- 
portunity for the interpolation into Christianity of 
their own fanciful reveries, as a new revelation, 
" under secret supernatural guidance, ^'^ 

And so, Romanism, by its later champions, comes 
forward and prefers the theory of " development." 
This theory she attempts to sustain, by three a 
priori arguments. The first is, that all nature is a 
process of development. This argument from anal- 
ogy is sufiiciently satisfied by the fact that revealed 
religion has been gradually developed in precisely 
the same way : hut always hy successive and fuller 
revelations. It commenced in Paradise. It was 
gradually unfolded, and received its completion by 
the full Christian revelation. 

But this very fact of the progressive unfolding of 
the Truth, by successive revelations, is another of 
the a priori arguments of Mr. "N., for a continued 
human development of Christianity, '' under secret 
supernatural guidance .^" 

To this I reply, that each new stage of the devel- 
opment of religious truth, in the Divine economy, 
has been from heaven, by a distinct and authenti- 



01^ xewman's development. 241 

cated revelation. The earlier dispensations were, in 
their terms ^ preparatory^ and pointed to a larger de- 
velopment by a new revelation to be made. The 
new, the Christian revelation, in the fulness of ti7ne^ 
came. It distinctly announces itself as linal, as the 
last, as the fulfilment of all. Men are exhorted to 
hear no other, even if it should be preached hy an 
angel from heaven ! An anathema is solemnly pro- 
nounced against any one who adds to, or takes from 
the book of life. If Mr. N. will go back to the 
old claim of his sect, and set up a new revelation, 
distinct from that recorded in the Bible, ^iXidi prove 
that it was delivered by an angel, or by any other 
messenger from heaven, then it will be time enough 
to enter into the inquiry raised by the injunction of 
St. Paul, whether such a revelation is to be received. 
But to talk about developing a new truth, by which 
men may be saved, is to undermine the foundations 
of Divine truth, and of human belief. All history 
proves, in direct contradiction to the theory of our 
author, that the action of the human mind upon re- 
ligious truth, has been almost universally the cor- 
ruption of the truth, and the destruction of religion. 
Paganism, in all its monstrous forms, and wherev^* 
it exists, is man's development of the old Patriarchal 
religion. Hence the necessity of an entire body of 
truth, revealed and recorded. This forms the one 
unchoMging standard hy lohich to try and. measure 
all developments. Developments, in some of the 
multifarious senses in which the word is used by Mr. 
N., there must be. But no human development can 
be a part of the eternal truth, by which men may 

21 



242 APPENDIX. 

be saved. Tliat saving truth can only come from 
God. It must be distinctly in tlie revelation from 
Him, or we can have no warrant for its truth. Le- 
gitimate developments then, of religious truth, can 
be nothing more than those near and apparent con- 
sequences of that truth, which may be immediately 
deduced from it, and which refer all their authority 
to the original truth, and do not pretend to be dis- 
tinct and substantive truths, claiming submission. 
As soon as they assume, an independent position, 
that position becomes a corruption, pregnant with 
the most fatal consequences. The supposed devel- 
opment, very probably an error, becomes, by that 
position, the germ of new consequences, and new 
developments, until presently the departure from the 
original truth becomes so great, as to be almost di- 
rect antagonism. Hence it follows, as a necessary 
canon for the integrity of religious truth, that all 
developments, whether true or false, near or remote, 
must be held as matters of opinion, or of discipline, 
or of expediency ; and should never be imposed or 
submitted to, as articles of Faith, as terms of com- 
munion, as grounds of salvation. The Romish 
Church has a vast and comprehensive body of doc- 
trines and practices which Messrs. N. and Moehler say 
she derived by development from the original truths 
revealed ; but which an older Romish theory main- 
tained she received direetlf from the Apostles, along 
with the truths contained i:i the Scriptures, by a 
parallel oral tradition. Either theory confounds 
and mingles together the conceits, the inventions, 
and the vain imaginations of men with the imniuta- 



o]vr newiman's development. 243 

ble truth of God ; and if acted upon, without oppo- 
sition, would corrupt and destroy Christianity, just 
as the traditions of the Jews, and the developments 
of heathenism, corrupted and destroyed the earlier 
revelations of the Truth from heaven. 

But here Mr. I^. opposes against the system of the 
Church certain grave objections. Tliere are certain 
very important points, he says, on which the Scrip- 
tures do not inform us, and on which we must be 
informed by a new revelation, or by development. 
'' Such is the question of the Canon of Scripture and 
its inspiration : whether Christianity depends upon 
a written document as Judaism ; if so, on what 
writings and how many ; whether that document is 
self-interpreting or requires a comment, and whether 
any authoritative comment or commentator is pro- 
vided ; whether the revelation and the document are 
commensurate, or the one outruns the other, — that 
is, whether or not the revelation is partly document- 
ary and partly traditionar3\" — P. 51. These objec- 
tions may be disposed of in very few words. The 
Canon of Scripture was determined by the Church 
as an historical fact. For this we have the highest 
historical certainty ; and to talk about any assurance 
higher than that in regard to the evidence of a re- 
ligion revealed^ is mere* nursery nonsense. The rev- 
elation itself made provision for this and other de- 
terminations — among them the authoritative com- 
ment upon the Scriptures, so far as the terms of sal- 
vation are concerned — by the institution of a Church. 
The inspiration of the Scriptures is involved in the 
determination, that it is the woi^d of God. Whether 



244 APPENDIX. 

Christianity depends in any measure upon a written 
document, is proved by the existence of the written 
document. Whether that document be commensu- 
rate with the revelation, or whether that revelation 
be partly oral, is to be shown by those who main- 
tain or imagine the latter proposition. We will 
hearken to any revelation, whe7i it is proved. Vntil 
then^ we rest upon the revelation which comes to us 
authenticated, in a written document. 

But Mr. N. objects, again, and this is the last point 
that we shall notice, that the decrees of general 
councils at Nicsea and elsewhere, were progressive 
developments of the Faith. This objection is suffi- 
ciently met by a denial. Mr. N. has obviously mis- 
taken the successive developments of error^ for so 
many developments of Truth. Truth is one, and 
ever the same. Error is manifold, and perpetually 
varies. As each successive development of error 
sought, by new approaches, to undermine or im- 
pugn the truth, the Fathers were compelled to fence 
around that one unchanging truth by new defini- 
tions, NEGATIVING the new forms of error which had 
arisen. This is all that has ever been done by any 
general council in regard to the Faith. The Councils 
drawing their weapons from the Scriptures, princi- 
pally defined and illustrated -the terms of the Creed 
in various forms, by decrees, synodal letters, and in 
other ways. But they made no new creed, and had no 
power to make one. They simply authenticated the 
fullest and most explicit of the formulas of faith im- 
memorially professed in the churches. Greater or 
less fulness of statement is not diversity of truth. 



ON NEWISIAn's DEVELOPIMENT. 245 

The symbols of the faith committed to diflferent 
churches by each Apostle differed thus indefinitely, 
but varied in no essential of salvation, for all Chris- 
tians, from the beginning, were of necessity baptized 
into " One Faith." It is only the whole Church 
prescribing the terms of salvation that is the author- 
ized interpreter of Scripture. It is just as certain 
that the Nicene Creed was used before its formal 
authentication by the council as afterwards, and all 
the varied forms of the Creed are equivalents of each 
other, and teach but one and the same truth. And 
this truth is the Church's authorized interpretation 
of the Bible. 

The cursory examination which we have thus made 
of this latest " development" of the Romish system, 
by the last and ablest of its champions, is calculated 
to inspire us with devout gratitude to Almighty 
God for the gracious fulfilment of His promise, to be 
always with His Church — to preserve her from that 
destruction to which the corrupting tendencies of 
all that is human, continually expose her. By this 
abiding energy of the Holy Ghost in His Church, 
the minds of faithful men have ever been stirred up 
to resist the incursions of error, and the corrupting 
influences of degenerate humanity. And when, in 
an unhappy age, the force of these corrupting influ- 
ences has overborne all opposition, the same merci- 
ful and superintending Providence, while it staid 
the progress of error, has preserved, pure and invio- 
late, the written Word, — the authentic record of the 
Truth, — to be at once the excitant to reformation, 
and the perfect standard by which to measure all 

21* 



246 APPENDIX. 

deviations from tlie right. This superintending care 
of God, — this continued resistance of evil, — these 
successive reformations, when the evil has for a time 
prevailed, — have preserved the Church, and pre- 
vented the issue of the corrupting influences that, 
from time to time, have taken hold upon her. Of 
this feature of the Divine economy, Mr. N. has taken 
no account, and he has made no allowance for it at all 
in his theory.. That the Romish branch of the Church 
yet exists is, with him, the sole and conclusive proof 
that she has UQver been corrupted. The same ar- 
gument w^ould be much stronger in the case of the 
yet subsisting forms of Paganism. Some little il- 
lustration of the importance and efficacy of that con- 
servative influence to which we have referred, Mr. 
IT. might have seen in the striking difference between 
the practical operation of Komanism in England, 
and of the same Komanism in those countiies where 
it is at home, unchecked and unwatched. 

It is a symptom of fearful omen for all that re- 
mains of truth and righteousness in the Roman com- 
munion, that her ablest divines have come to de- 
fend her corruptions by a denial of this important 
provision of the Divine economy. By the theory 
of Development, all motive, all inducement, all 
jpower to withstand the evil, are taken away. And 
every change which this branch of the Church may 
admit or sanction, is confiecrated as an integral part 
of God's eternal truth, which may not be questioned 
or opposed. This same theory has converted Socin- 
ianism, for the most part, into undisguised and 
blaspheming infidelity. Let the honest adherents of 



247 

Eome beware, lest it also prove the precursor and the 
instrument of her utter and irrecoverable apostasy. 



The controversies of the present day are better 
than the coldness and indiiferentism of the last cen- 
tury. There are many evils, much bitterness and 
evil speaking, attendant upon the animated conflict 
of opinions. But out of this conflict truth will come 
forth, stronger, more plainly manifest, and more at- 
tractive in her loveliness. The powerful effbrt which 
the strongest and the best appointed of the sects of 
Christendom is now making to re-establish her sway, 
and to impose upon the Protestant nations the cor- 
rupted Christianity which she holds, has provoked a 
vigorous and an active opposition. The conflict is 
gradually opening the eyes of men to the fact that 
the Romish and Protestant sects are almost equally 
distant from the Christianity of the Primitive Church. 
How is it that Rome most successfully vindicates her 
own position, and assails her adversaries ? She plants 
herself, in argument, upon the Christianity of the 
old time — upon those principles w^hich she now 
holds in common with the Anglican and American 
branches of the Church. And she makes her on- 
slaught upon the sects, by exposing their several 
departures from these principles. And these same 
sects are only strong in their assaults upon Rome, 
when they expose her manifold and corruj)t addi- 
tions to the Faith once delivered to the Saints. 
Thus both of the contending parties unconsciously 
maintain and set forward the position actually occu- 



2iS APPENDIX. 

pied by the two reformed branches of the Church 
just mentioned. 

The sectarian principle, under the radical modifi- 
cation of it, that every man may make his own 
religion, and establisli a Church for himself, was 
rapidly running itself out by continued subdivisions. 
At this critical conjuncture, the largest of the sects 
skilfully brings forward the same sectarian prin- 
ciple, under a different modification, — that which 
appoints a particular individual to form the creed 
of the sect from time to time, — and charitably pro- 
poses to terminate all the dissensions of her rivals 
by providing them with a thinking tribunal, quite 
as competent to determine or to originate a creed as 
most of the modern founders of churches ; and hav- 
ing this manifest advantage, that there will only be 
one creed at a time for all the Faithful to swear by. 

In opposition to this sectarian principle, under 
either of its modifications, the Church in the old 
time, and the reformed branches of the Church now 
maintain, that Grod has not only revealed His Truth, 
but that he has been graciously pleased to provide 
that it should be recorded in His own inspired 
Word, to stand there forever, the unchanging wit- 
ness of the Divine TTill. He also instituted a 
Church, to whose care and keepiug He committed 
this Divine Record. And as all men were com- 
manded to become members of this Church in order 
to salvation, and as the explicit belief of certain 
things, for those who are caj^able of faith, was a 
necessary qualification for membership in that 
Cliurch, it became, from the beginning, the impera- 



oisr newmak's development. 249 

live obligation of the Church to ascertain the terms 
of communion, the saving truths which all must 
alike helieve. This was done by the use, in every 
place, of a baptismal confession, equivalent to that 
which we now call the Apostles' Creed. But since 
the completion of the Christian revelation, no new 
dispensation has been opened. The Saving Faith of 
the first age must be the Saving Faith of every age. 
The Church, accordingly, with harmonious voice 
and action, has proposed this Faith^ at all times, 
and to al] persons. • This common determination of 
the things to be believed in order to salvation, con- 
stitutes one of the three particulars in which the 
essential Unity of Christ's Church consists. Sub- 
mission to the common ministry which Christ estab- 
lished, and the reception, by all Christian people, of 
the Sacraments which He ordained, make up, Avith 
the common Faith, the whole of that Unity. 

But the Sect principle says, this common faith 
will not do. You must believe my dogmas. And 
because all Christians will not subscribe to those 
dogmas, the party Avhich entertains them cuts itself 
oft" from the communion of the rest, and forms — 
A Sect. 

The founder of an American Sect, who, in his 
multifarious reading, has stumbled upon several an- 
cient truths, new to him but familiar to Churchmen, 
had the sagacity to perceive the absurdity of this 
process. He has, therefore, undertaken to get up an 
anti-sectarian sect. The success with which his effort 
has been attended, shows how tired men are of the 
sect spirit. But, unfortunately for this gentleman, 



250 APPENDIX. 

he failed to perceive, among his other discoveries, 
the fact that the Founder of Christianity had antici- 
pated his wisdom, and had long ago established a 
Church, which, however it may have been corrupted, 
was still continued in existence, and would, to the end 
of time, continue, by virtue of the Divine promise, 
" Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world." Instead of summoning men to this common 
home of God's believing children, this well-meaning 
person has undertaken to found a new anti-sec- 
tarian Church upon a new sectarian dogma. That 
dogma, if I understand it, is, that the Christian 
should have no creed, except the Bible. But, surely, 
this exception is a very large and comprehensive 
one. It binds upon the consciences of men, a creed 
more minute and burdensome than was ever im- 
posed before. If, indeed, all the facts, all the doc- 
trines, and all the precepts contained in the Bible, 
must be explicitly believed in order to salvation, 
then not one man in ten thousand can be saved ; for 
men cannot so perfectly know the various matters 
contained in the Bible, as to make them at any one 
time the subjects of an actual belief. 

But it may be said that this is not the sort of faith 
that is meant : it is only meant that you must be- 
lieve, implicitly, that whatever is contained in the 
Bible is true. But this is to take away the very 
ground of salvation. The ground of salvation is 
Faith in certain positive and ascertained truths. 
But the dogma resolves itself into a belief that God 
has caused a certain book to be written ; but what 
the book is about, the believer does not know, and 



ox Newman's development. 251 

need not care. For the instant that you draw from 
that book any one proposition, and require tJiat to 
be believed in order to salvation, you have aban- 
doned the foundation of this new party — you have 
formed a Creed ! 

Notwithstanding this fatal mistake, the very ex- 
istence of such a party proves the yearning of the 
popular mind for emancipation from the evil spirit 
of sectarianism. By the Providence of God, it is 
the high and special vocation of the Anglican and 
American Churches to call back their separated 
brethren, of every name, to the old foundations of 
the Catholic Church. Joyfully we point them to 
that UNITY of FAITH, which consists in the profession 
of the common creed of the first and of every suc- 
ceeding age; to that unity of government, which 
recognizes the Priesthood of Christ's institution ; to 
that Sacramental Unity, which consists in the com- 
munion of all Christian people in the most holy 
Sacraments of Christ's appointment. 



252 APPENDIX. 



THE KOMAN PRIMACY.* 

From the [Baltimore] True Catholic. 

That wonderful and complicated system, whicli tlie 
adversary of souls has expended so much, art and so 
many centuries of effort in contriving and perfecting, 
exposes the unsoundness of its foundation in every 
attempt to exhibit or to defend itself. The Eomish 
system is as distinct from the Catholic truth upon 
which it has been engrafted, as darkness from light. 
But that system has been so ingeniously and elabo- 
rately dovetailed on to the truth, and intermingled 
with it, that it requires a nice discrimination to sep- 
arate the two at their point of junction ; and to per- 
ceive with certainty that here ends the truth, which 
came from God to save the world, and here begins 
the error, which was conceived of the Devil to pros- 
trate the work of the Almighty, and to plunge men 
into perdition. It is the common effort of Romish 
controversialists to increase this indistinctness, and to 
try by ingenious sophistry to deduce the whole false- 
hood they would establish from the mixture of truth 
and error, which they are pretending to prove. 
Their mixed proposition once admitted, all the con- 
sequential error follows, of course, and they are not 
careful to dwell upon that. Nothing is so much in 
the way of any sophism, and especially of this par- 

-^ The Primacy of the Apostolic See Vindicated. By Francis Pat- 
rick Kenrick, B}shop of Philadelphia. 1845. 



THE ROMAN PKIMACY. 253 

ticular form of it, as a definition. Hence you can 
hardly ever bring a Romish controversialist to a 
definition. It is necessary to his art that he should 
deal in generals, that he should use language, whose 
meaning is as loose and as indistinct as possible. 

Here is a large, heavy, closely printed octavo, 
upon the single point of the Primacy of the Apos- 
tolic See. This volume is issued in 1845. It comes 
from a high source, and professes to be the matured 
work of the author, whose mind has long been en- 
gaged upon the subject, and w^ho presents us this 
book as a substitute for one not so perfect, which he 
published some years ago. This may, therefore, be 
considered as the efi*ort of the Eomish party, to ex- 
haust the argument upon their part, and to present 
us at one view with all that can be urged in defence 
of their system. In the beginning of a work upon a 
single point, so imposing and so elaborate, we would 
naturally look for a definition. But, strange to say, 
we would look in vain. The reason of this omission, 
of what would have been an essential requisite if truth 
had been the object of the investigation, is obvious. 
A definition in the beginning would have killed 
the book. The w^hole w^ork is a tissue of the sort of 
sophistry which we have described, and a definition 
would have taken away the foundation of it all. 

If the author would have told us what he meant 
by the Primacy which he was about to prove, it 
would have been pleasant and convenient. But in- 
stead of that he charitably informs us that, " with re- 
gard to the extent and limits of this power, various 
questions may be raised which it is premature to ex- 

22 



254 APPENDIX. 

amine before the authority itself is admitted." Why, 
" the extent and limits" of an authority constitute 
the only intelligible expression of an authority. An 
authority which has neither extent nor limits^ must 
be either Divine, and therefore infinite, or else no 
authority at all. What would be thought of a com- 
mission from the State to an individual — '' Have 
thou authority in this commonwealth ?" The thing 
would be impertinent and null, because no specific 
authority, no '' extent or limits'^ of authority was 
expressed. What you mean when you intend to 
speak intelligibly of an authority in a particular in- 
dividual, is an authority clearly expressed by its ex- 
tent and limits. The extent and limits which consti- 
tute the authority are the very things you are talk- 
ing of. But all this is too prosaic, and too common- 
place for the vaulting eloquence of Bishop Kenrick. 
He starts out to prove authority in the abstract, and 
to this herculean task he devotes his 488 pages of 
matter. What is it to him that nobody disputes his 
proposition? He will prove it demonstrably, and 
then, under cover of the show he has made with that 
demonstration, he will ingeniously smuggle in all 
the most ofi'ensive dogmas of his party. 

Bishop Kenrick can prove that the Roman See has 
authority ! What a pawerful and overwhelming ef- 
fort of ratiocination ! But if the Bishop could only 
prove that any one in the world had ever denied it, 
he would beat himself, all hollow. St. Peter had 
authority in the Church of God; it was Divinely 
conferred. All Christians profess and maintain 
these truths. Each Bishop of Rome has had author- 



THE ROMAN PKIMACT. 255 

ity in the Church of God, — is another proposition 
equally indisputable. The extent, the limits of the 
authority in either case, is the question^ and the only 
question in dispute among Christian people. And 
this is precisely the question which Bishop Kenrick 
begins his large controversial book by saying, he 
will not discuss ! 

On this same first page of his w^ork the Bishop 
tells us that, " It is not pretended that the authority 
of the Chief Pastor was at once developed." But, 
surely, if not at once developed^ it must have been, 
in our Saviour's time, fully conferred. And the 
grant of the authority will show its meaning and ex- 
tent. Never mind about the development of the 
authority, let us see what authority was actually 
bestowed upon the Roman See. No particular an- 
thority vms lestoiced. answers our author ; '' but it is 
believed that Christ deleo-ated to Peter a fi^overnincc 
authority, to be exercised for the benefit of the 
Church at large, according as the variety of times 
and places may require." Here is an authority un- 
defined. Who is to be the judge of its extent ? He 
who exercises it ? Then it is an authority unlimited, 
infinite, a despotism more absolute and destructive 
than ever was wielded by man before. Those upon 
whom it is to be exercised ? Then it is no authority 
at all ; each- man may submit or resist, according to 
his own notions of expediency or fitness. To accuse 
the Saviour of oro^anizino^ His kino-dom with such a 
principle of indescribable confusion is a monstrous 
impiety. 

But the proposition is made indefinite on purpose 



256 APPENDIX. 

to sustain the sophistry which is to be built upon it. 
It is so indefinite that it is capable of a true sense 
and of many false ones. The author will prove the 
true sense, and then ingeniously declare that he has 
proved as many of the false ones as he thinks prop- 
er to bring forward. And this sophistry is the en- 
tire staple of Romanism. Tliis author has unwitting- 
ly exposed it on the fore-front of his book a little too 
prominently. 

It is true "that Christ delegated to Peter a gov- 
erning authority, to be exercised for the benefit of 
the Church at large, according as the variety of 
times and places may require." But the authority 
thus delegated to St. Peter was not the vague and 
indefinite thing here described. It was an authority 
conveyed in plain and express language, describing 
distinct and limited, but plenary and sufiicient pow- 
ers. And the commission conveying these powers 
was to all the Apostles, equally, and alike. "As 
My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." 
" Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
them." " Do this in remembrance of Me." " Go 
ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature." " Disciple all nations, baptizing them in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Gliost, teaching them to observe all things, 
whatsoever I have commanded you." 

But our author will prove that St. Peter had 
authority in the Church of God, and will forget to 
remind his readers that each Apostle possessed, by 
the fulness of the Divine commission, precisely the 
same authority. Bishop Kenrick in like manner 



THE KOMA]Sr PKIMACT. 257 

will prove tliat the Bisliops of Rome have ever exer- 
cised a governing authority in the Church of God. 
But he will never give them cause to suspect that 
every Bishop of the Catholic Church exercised pre- 
cisely the same powers, subject only, as to the form 
of its exercise, to the early arrangement of the Church 
into provincial and patriarchal divisions. The whole 
juggle of his book is contrived by the Bishop out of 
a skilful use of this indefiniteness of the proposition, 
which he here undertakes to prove. He proves that 
the Bishop of Home has exercised authority in the 
Catholic Church, and he assumes this authority to 
be whatever he pleases to ascribe to himself. By 
the very same line of argument he could prove the 
existence of the same authority in each one of the 
greater Bishops or Patriarchs of the Church. But 
the facts which show the exercise of this power by 
other Bishops are studiously kept out of view, and 
then the wished-for conclusion is easily reached, viz. : 
that the Bishop of Rome alone possesses any gov- 
erning authority in the Church of God. This is the 
course of reasoning which makes up the whole book, 
except in a few cases where the author is compelled 
to halt for a brief space in his triumphal progress, 
in order to explain away some testimony, which he 
could not forbear to cite, because of its connection 
with his principal authorities, but which would al- 
most betray the truth of the case if not ingeniously 
covered up by an excess of verbiage and of apology. 
If we have time we will present the reader, before con- 
cluding this article, with some examples of this sort of 
reasoning, tal^n at random from any part of the work. 

22« 



258 APPENDIX. 

But we have not yet done witli the characteristic 
beanties of our author's first page, where we look 
for the formal proposition of his subject. A con- 
troversial work on '' the Primacy of the Apostolic 
See^'^ would naturally present the issue between those 
who maintain and those who deny that Primacy, 
but who agree in acknowledging an Episcopal regi- 
men, and that there are other Sees besides the 
'' Apostolic, '^^ And the author does in fact assume 
the existence of the Episcopal constitution of the 
ministry, throughout the whole of his work, except 
here in the beginning, where he affirms the issue to 
be between the Papacy and Radicalism — between 
those who maintain '' the pre-eminence and authority 
of the chief Bishop, governing the entire flock, in 
the name of Christ," and those who deny "that 
Christ, our Lord, gave any peculiar form or organ- 
ization to His Church." Such an issue, by carefully 
excluding from view all the facts in regard to the 
governing authority of other Bishops, and parading 
all those which exhibit that of the Bishop of Rome, 
might have been decided, one would suppose, in less 
space than 488 pages. 

To follow a writer, who proposes a design no 
higher or more difficult than this, through all the 
devious windings of his argument, would be a sad 
waste of time. Nearly all that he undertakes to 
prove may be safely admitted, and if we could but 
stop him there, his party would not be the gainer by 
his work. But that which he really wishes to estab- 
lish appears in the form of conclusions, which, in the 
progress of the book, he is continually putting for- 



THE ROMAN PRIMACY. 259 

ward, in the most innocent way imaginable. As, 
for instance, it is said, on page 84, " No Apostle but 
Peter has a succession in the strictest and fullest ac- 
ceptation of the term." And, on page 99, herejDre- 
sents all power in the Church as emanating from a 
single earthly source. " All the Bishops, with their 
respective flocks, constitute the one flock of Christ, 
under the general Pastor ;" and in page 115 he adds, 
" The Koman Bishop alone is Bishop of the Catholic 
Church." 

Before presenting any specimens of the reasoning 
of Bishop Kenrick, let us look at the Catholic dogma, 
with regard to the government and Unity of the 
Church, as contrasted with the Papal. 

The Catholic theory is, that Christ, adapting His 
Church to its new condition, by which it was to be 
extended into all the world, to embrace all nations, 
bestowed the fulness of authority therein on each one 
of a select but indefinite number, so that wherever the 
Church should be planted, there it might be in its 
entirety and integrity. For this purpose every plain 
and express grant of authority in the Church is made 
to all the Apostles equally. To all of them alike he 
said, " As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I 
you." And so of all the other parts of the Divine 
commission. This expresses the very top of ecclesi- 
astical power, and no power can be conferred which 
can exceed that. Tlie Bishops are the equal suc- 
cessors of the Apostles, and wherever a Bishop is, 
there is the fulness of this authority. But the Church 
is one, and the authority of each Bishop is, there- 
fore, necessarily limited by the equal authority of 



260 APPENDIX. 

every other Bishop. The equality of the Bishops 
and the Unity of the Church necessarily gave to them 
a mutual visitorial power for heresy or immorality. 
Other natural results of this equality and Unity 
were, provincial and national councils, the repre- 
sentative authority of metropolitans and patriarchs, 
and a continued correspondence between the several 
dignitaries of the Church. This constitution of the 
Church is many times expressed by St. Cyprian, as 
in the following letter of his to St. Stephen, bishop 
of Eome : " For, therefore, dearest brother, is the 
body of Bishops so large, united together by the 
glue of mutual concord and the bond of Unity, that 
if any of our college should attempt to introduce 
heresy, and to rend and lay waste the flock of Christ, 
the rest may come in aid, and as good and merciful 
shepherds, gather the Lord's sheep into the fold." 

The Papal system, in opposition to this, maintains 
that Unity is constituted, not " by the glue of mu- 
tual concord " between the bishops, but by the sub- 
jection of all the bishop to a single man, a univer- 
sal pastor, the only bishop of the Catholic Church. 
The issue is, or ought to be, between these two sys- 
tems ; and now let us look at a few of Bishop Ken- 
rick's proofs as specimens of the whole. 

The author divides the first part of his subject 
into '' the promise of the Primacy," and " the insti- 
tution of the Primacy." For the first he quotes 
two passages of Scripture — one in which St. Peter 
is termed a rock, and the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven are promised to him ; the other in which he 
is told to confirm his brethren, when himself con- 



THE EOMAN PRBIACY. 261 

verted. " The institiition of the Primacy" is derived 
from a single passage — " Feed my sheep," " Feed 
my lambs." 

From these expressions, the three principal of 
which are highly figurative, the author adduces 
these astounding conclusions : The Primacy '' is a 
central authority uniting all the parts of the sacred 
edifice, which rest on it necessarily and inseparably. 
Peter was constituted the vicegerent of Christ, hav- 
ing received from him the keys of the kingdom, and 
consequently a plenitude of authority, delegated, 
however, and subordinate to that of Christ ; and the 
successor of Peter inherits the like power." " In 
Scripture I discover no limits to this power, other 
than those which arise from its nature." " The 
Apostolic power of each one (of the Apostles) was, 
like that of Peter, coextensive with the world, but 
Peter was pastor, ruler, and superior. They were 
all equal in the Episcopal character, and even 
in Apostolic authority; with this diflference, that 
their power was subordinate to his, that even in 
their persons unity might be exhibited, and that his 
universal jurisdiction was a permanent attribute of 
his oflice as pastor and ruler, to descend and con- 
tinue forever in his successors, whilst theirs was a 
personal prerogative, whereof the bishops would 
partake, without enjoying severally its plenitude." 
—Pj). 31, 33. 

The several passages upon which this vaulting 
pretension is built, are, as we have said, highly fig^ 
urative, and are, therefore, capable of several mean- 
ings : the true meaning of the figure being only to 



262 APPENDIX. 

be deduced from the context, and other cu'Ciim- 
stances connected with its use. But if von take 
these figurative expressions in the largest possible 
meaning of which they are capable, the grant of 
authority conveyed by them will be no more, can 
be no more, than was made by our Lord to all the 
Apostles in plain, express, and unequivocal lan- 
guage. And yet by this author, these figurative 
expressions are just taken in their widest latitude 
of meaning, without any reference to the context in 
which they are used, and then made to override, and 
absorb, and extinguish all the plain and express 
grants of the same power, contained in the various 
commissions of our Lord to all His Apostles ! 

In reference to this figurative language, there are 
three points to be determined before it can be made 
to bear at all upon the question of '' The Primacy 
of the Apostolic See." 1. What was the meaning of 
the figure as used by our Lord ? 2. Does that mean- 
ing admit of extension beyond the person of St. 
Peter? 3. If so, to whom should it be extended? 

In reference to the name Peter, a rock, conferred 
upon St. Peter, the meanuig which is most consistent 
with the place and with all Scripture, and which 
combines and harmonizes all the various interpreta- 
tions of the Fathers, is, that the faith which St. Peter 
confessed, is the rock upon which, in one sense, the 
Church is founded : that in allusion to his relation 
to that faith, as its first confessor, our Lord confers 
upon him this distinguishing title. In another place 
all the Apostles are called foundation stones, upon 
whom the Church is built ; Christ Himself is de- 



THE ROMAN PRIMACY. 263 

clared to be the Corner Stone, — St. Peter being built 
in next to Him, as the Apostle first called, and the 
first confessor of the faith, — then all the Apostles 
are foundation stones, — then all Christians built in 
upon them as living stones in the spiritual building ; 
this exposition exhausts the whole natural meaning 
of the figure, and makes it beautifully consistent 
with other corresponding passages. 

The meaning of our Lord in the use of the figura- 
tive expression, " the keys of the kingdom of heaven," 
St. Peter himself has uiffolded, in his account of that 
remarkable era in the history of the Church, when 
by St. Peter, acting by express revelation, the doors 
of the kingdom were unlocked, and thrown open to 
the whole Gentile world, by the baptism of Cornelius 
and his company. At the first council in Jerusa- 
lem, " Peter rose up, and said unto them. Men and 
brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God 
7nade choice among uSj that the Gentiles hy my month 
should hear the word of the Gospel and believe." — 
Acts XV. 7. 

These two addresses of our Lord to St. Peter were 
drawn out by the forwardness, and zeal, and fervor 
of the Apostle, and were intended as a reward for 
his exhibition of those qualities. But the remaining 
two declarations relied upon by Romanists as estab- 
lishing the Primacy, are connected with the lament- 
able apostasy of the same Apostle. Tliough Peter 
apostatized, his gracious Master had prayed that his 
faith should not utterly fail. In anticipation of his 
fall and of his restoration, the Saviour saith unto 
him, ''And when thou art converted, strengthen thy 



264 APPEKDIX. 

brethren." Doubtless the Apostle was to obey this 
injunction by communicating to his colleagues the 
results of his own humbling experience of the frailty 
of human nature, and of the bitterness and the hor- 
ror of apostasy. 

The special address of our Lord to St. Peter, after 
his resurrection, instead of being the institution of 
an autocracy in the Church of God, can only be re- 
garded as a formal reinstatement of the humble and 
repentant Apostle to that from which he had by 
apostasy fallen. The threefold injunction is care- 
fully arranged by our Lord to correspond to the 
threefold denial, — and so it is evidently regarded by 
His grieved and agonized servant. And yet, it is 
out of this transaction that Romanists construct their 
colossal fabric of unbounded dominion in the hands 
of one man, — of a power to which this author " can 
discover no limits^ other than those which arise from 
its nature," of which limits the claimant of this 
power being the judge, it is, of course, as high as 
human pride and ambition can soar. 

But the greatest logical achievement of this writer, 
upon the present branch of his subject, is the con- 
clusion from the premises which we have just ex- 
amined, that the '' universal jurisdiction" of his 
imaginary primate '' was a permanent attribute of 
his office as pastor and ruler, to descend and con- 
tinue forever in his successors^ whilst theirs (the 
other Apostles) was 2i personal prerogative^ — P. 33. 
Or, as the author has expressed the same idea else- 
where, "iVb Apostle but Peter has a successor^ in the 
strictest and fullest acceptation of the term." These 



THE KOMAN PRIMACY. 265 

remarkable conclusions are drawn in the face of the 
fact that each of the addresses to St. Peter relied 
upon by the author grew out of, and is inseparably 
connected with, the personal qualities and conduct, 
both good and had^ of the Apostle ; while the plenary 
commission, conferred at several times upon all the 
Apostles, is entirely unconnected with any such cir- 
cumstances. And again, the language relied upon 
as the promise or the institution of the Primacy 
contains no words of perpetuity, or continuance, or 
succession whatever ; jvhile the general commission 
to all the Apostles does contain those pregnant words 
of perpetuity^ which are the warrant and charter for 
the uninterrupted continuance of the Apostolic office 
in the Church of God. In flat contradiction to this, 
the Divine arrangement, our author maintains that 
his ecclesiastical autocracy alone has perpetual suc- 
cession, while the apostolic office was a mere person- 
al prerogative of the chosen disciples of the Lord ! 

But whatever may be the meaning of these figu- 
rative addresses of our Lord to St. Peter, the ques- 
tion arises, is that meaning to be extended beyond 
the person of the Apostle, and if so, to whom ? Our 
author quietly assumes that the meaning is to be ex- 
tended, and exclusively to the successive bishops of 
Pome, as such. But what shadow of a warrant for 
this assumption is to be found in the original institu- 
tion ? "Why not as well, and witli the same reason, 
extend it to all the persons upon whom St. Peter 
conferred the Episcopate, and who were equally his 
successors ? But the Divine word has decided both 
these questions for us. All that was not necessarily 

23 



266 APPENDIX. 

personal to St. Peter belonged equally to tlie whole 
apostolic college, and was designed for them all, for 
all the power that can possibly be tortured out of 
these addresses was distinctly conferred, in other and 
plainer terms, npon the whole college. The priv- 
ileges and duties set forth in these addresses to 
St. Peter, being a part of the apostolic office, be- 
come connected with the words of perpetuity which 
belong to the institution of that office, and therefore 
descend in common tp all the successors of the Apos- 
tles, who constitute the one general Episcopate of the 
whole world. This is the view of the matter taken 
by St. Cyprian, and by most of the early fathers. 
St. Cyprian frequently speaks of every single bishop 
as holding allthe prerogatives of St. Peter. 

The manner in which our learned author deals 
with the Apostolic council at Jerusalem, affords an- 
other fine illustration of Romish argumentation. At 
first he cites it as " an illustrious instance of the ex- 
ercise of the Primacy by St. Peter." This would do 
for those who had never read the proceedings of the 
council in the Divine record. But seeming to ap- 
prehend that his readers might have some indistinct 
recollection of the occurrence, he tells them that 
" the points are of little importance where the au- 
thority is fully respected and admitted. To be 
prince and primate in the Church of God, it was • 
not necessary that he should stand alone, separated 
from his colleagues in the Apostleship and Episco- 
pacy, and resting solely on the prerogative of his sta- 
tion. It is delightful to see him in the council of 
his brethren, causing the ardor of disputation to 



THE ROMAN PRmACY. 267 

subside by authoritative instruction." " Tbe de- 
cree whicb expresses his judgment, and that of his 
colleagues, and the faith of the whole Church is in no 
way derogatory to his prerogative." So, then, that 
which was to be an illustrious exercise of the Pri- 
macy^ turns out to require an apology and a eulogy 
upon the humility of St. Peter /br not exercising it. 
See the beautiful harmony of the argument. The au- 
thor undertakes to prove, by the occurrences of the 
council at Jerusalem, the exercise of the Primacy by 
St. Peter. The action of this Apostle is at large 
described, in most grandiloquent terms, and the con- 
clusion seems to be securely reached. • But present- 
ly it appears that St. James presided in the council, 
and the imaginary primate only took part in the 
consultation as the equal of the rest. Then boldly 
assuming the existence of the primacy which this 
transaction was cited to prove^ the author launches 
out into extravagant praise of the primate's humili- 
ty and condescension, &c. ; and at last declares, in 
opposition to the whole tenor of the evidence, that, 
at leasts the transaction does not prove that St. Peter 
was not the primate ! Will it be believed, that af- 
ter this miserably lame and impotent conclusion, the 
author winds up his chapter by saying, " We are 
warranted in believing him to have possessed and 
exercised a true supremacy. I produce his commis- 
sion with the seal of the Great Eng, and demand 
that it be respected !" 

Such is the Eomanistic logic by which this new 
theory of the constitution of Christ's kingdom is to 
be sustained. Such logic is worthy of the falsifica- 



268 APPENDIX. 

tion of tlie Fathers, and of the vapid declamation 
which accompanies it, and which, with it, make np 
the staple of all Romish controversy. 

But whatever may be thought of the theological 
depth of this very elaborate work, its publication at 
the present period is exceedingly well-timed ; inas- 
much as, with some pains-taking, we can gather 
from it the actual views of the Romish hierarchy, in 
this year of our Lord, 1845, with regard to the bear- 
ing of the Primacy upon the temporal aflPairs of the 
nations. It is true that the author is quite as indis- 
tinct and as indefinite upon this branch of his sub- 
ject as in any part of his ingenious book. But, still 
it is possible to ascertain his meaning, and in doing 
so, we will give him all the benefit of all his dis- 
claimers. We will not charge him with all that he 
may be understood to profess, but will seek only to 
determine the very least that his language can be 
made to express. 

We have nothing to do, in this inquiry, with the 
apologies which may legitimately be made for the 
actual exercise of the deposing power by the popes 
in the middle ages. The exercise of such a power 
we conceive to have been an enormous wrong, the 
working of, a principle subversive of all social order 
and national independence. And so, for a long 
time, it has been admitted to be by all moderate 
men of the Romish party. It does not at all affect 
the abstract right of this power, that He, whose 
sovereign perogative alone it is to bring good out 
of evil, overruled this evil to the accomplishment of 
some good in the disjointed times to which we have 



THE ROMAN PEIMACY. 269 

referred. The religions, social, and political con- 
dition of Europe, which gave occasion for the em- 
ployment of this evil, as the readiest instrument 
with which to redress other evils, may properly be 
urged as an apology for the individual actors in 
those scenes, and for the temper of the age which 
submitted to such action. The practical question 
for us is not, whether Hildebrand and his compeers 
may or may not be justified for their conduct, under 
the circumstances in which they were placed. Many 
things may justly be urged in extenuation of some 
of the most extravagant of their proceedings. This 
author has unhappily chosen to vindicate the pon- 
tiifs, by an unscrupulous misrepresentation of some 
of the most notorious facts of history. But it is 
comparatively of little importance what may be 
truly or falsely alleged as the apology for these times. 
The real, practical question is, w^hether the peculiar 
opinions, practices, and sentiments, religious, social, 
and civil, which grew out of the circumstances of 
the middle ages, are to be perpetuated, and, so far 
as they are religious, consecrated and maintained as 
an integral part of Christianity ? This question the 
Romanist answers in the affirmative, with the excep- 
tion of a halting disclaimer as to the direct exercise 
by the Pontiff of the deposing power. Catholicism 
answers this question in the negative, and contends 
that nothing is to be received as a part of Christian- 
ity, but that which was made so by its Divine 
Founder, witnessed by the first ages, and declared 
by the universal Church. 

But now let us see the exposition which Bishop 

23-3^ 



270 APPENDIX. 

Kenrick gives of what he calls the Catholic faith, 
with regard to the legitimate influence of the Papacy 
upon the affairs of nations. The language nsed by 
the Bishop admits of a meaning much more strin- 
gent and offensive than that for which, upon his 
unquestionable authority, we will hold his Church 
of the present day responsible. His frequent aver- 
ment that the action of the Popes in the internal 
affairs of nations was in perfect accordance with the 
liberal and popular principles of the present day 
and of our own country ; his assimilation of a depo- 
sition of a sovereign by the pontiff, to the American 
Declaration of Independence ; his comparison of the 
office of the Pope as universal umpire, to that of the 
Chief Justice of the United States, presiding over 
the Senate, upon the trial of an impeachment of the 
President ; his unqualified eulogy of the remedial 
intervention of the Popes between the government 
and the people, and the strong contrast which he 
draws between the salutary and beneficent operation 
of that intervention, and the crying evils which arise 
from the tyranny of the government upon the one 
hand, and " the convulsions of society, and the ex- 
cesses of a nation maddened into revolt upon the 
other," give us ample reason to conclude that Bishop 
Kenrick sighs for the return of that golden age of 
the world and of the Church, when the Father of 
the Faithful shall ao-ain unsheathe the two-edo-ed 
sword of spiritual and temporal sovereignty, and 
sway the nations and compose the conflicting opin- 
ions of mankind. But these, we suppose, must be 
taken as only the individual speculations and the 



THE EOMAX PEIMACY. 271 

private opinions of the learned autlior, for wliicli, he 
savs, his brethren are not to be held responsible. 

By the by, there is a wonderful elasticity abont 
all the parts of this Romish system. Sometimes it 
will swell and expand until it seems to fill the earth. 
And then when you firmly seize it, it shrinks and 
dwindles almost to nothing. Our author aflfords an 
amusing instance of this upon the present branch of 
his subject. The Popes, in every instance of their 
exercise of the deposing power, uniformly claim to 
exercise it as a Divine endovnnent^ conferred itjyoii 
them as the successors of St. Peter, Ko definition 
of faith could be more formal or distinct, and one of 
the Pontiffs declares it to be a heresy to deny the de- 
posing power. — P, 293. To all this Bishop Kenrick 
innocently replies : " IS'otwithstanding the terms 
which ascribe all to the Pope, or to the Apostles, 
whose place he held, the very fact shows that he 
merely gave an authoritative declaration of right, 
and sanctioned and ratified what the nation, by its 
nobles, had done. If it be insisted that it necessari- 
ly implies an assumption of temporal power, I must 
simply answer that the Church, which venerates the 
sanctity of Gregory, does not recognize any tempo- 
ral power, as of Divine right, in the vicar of Him 
whose kingdom is not of this world." — P. 283. In 
another place the Bishop says, that the exercise of 
the deposing power cannot be referred '' to the am- 
bition and usurpation of the Pontiffs, because ' the 
first Pope who formally claimed it is recognized as 
a saint, and cannot, without temerity, be accused of 
ambition, and the same character of sanctity is ac- 



272 APPENDIX. 

knowledged by the Church in Pius Y., who was the 
last but one to exercise it ! ! ' " — P. 270. 

But now^ let us see what the Bishop claims to be 
of Faith on this subject. 

We noticed in the beginning of this article, the 
remarkable indefiniteness of the authority claimed 
for the Bishop of Rome by this modern writer. It 
is not the fault of Bishop Kenrick that his proposi- 
tion was expressed thus indefinitely. It is essential 
to the Papal claim, that it should always be thus 
cloudy and indistinct. " Christ delegated to Peter 
a governing authority, to be exercised for the benefit 
of the Church at large, according as the variety of 
times and jplaces may required This is the defini- 
tion of the Papal authority, made not in the middle 
ages, but in 1845. It is a power absolutely unlim- 
ited, except by the capacity to enforce it. It is a 
principle of indescribable confusion, tempting the 
claimant of this authority to unbounded aggression 
and usurpation, and justifying the subjects of this 
authority in any measure of resistance, w^hich they 
may successfully oppose to it. And, as a conse- 
quence of this principle, the history of the Papacy 
has been the history of aggression on the one hand 
and of tumultuous resistance upon the other. "When 
" the variety of times and places " admitted, this 
authority has swelled to supreme dominion in tem- 
poral and spiritual things ; kings, governors, and 
people being all alike the vassals of the Pontiflf ; and 
when "times and places" were no longer propitious 
for the actual exercise of this unbounded power, it 
was quietly suffered to repose, without being with- 



THE ROMAN PUmACY. 273 

drawn, the same comprehensive claim being still 
ready to embrace any and every power which policy 
imay render it expedient to employ. But what pro- 
portion of this indefinite authority is it proper and 
right for the Pontiff now to exercise ? Our author 
is discussing the conduct of Gregory YII. towards 
the Emperor of Germany, Henry IV. ''Gregory at 
length, having employed exhortations and threats 
to no purpose, drew the spiritual sword from the 
scabbard, and cut off from the communion of the 
Church the corrupt member. So far his action was 
clearly within the limits of his power, as head of the 
Church." This exercise of power was to cut off the 
Emperor, not only from all religious offices, but from 
all social communion. For all who communicated 
with him, in any act whatever, subjected themselves 
to the same sentence of excommunication. 

The author then proceeds to show how the follow- 
ing sentence of deposition might likewise be reduced 
under an acknowledged department of the pontifical 
power. He does not undertake to vindicate the 
direct act of deposition, as sicch^ and upon the 
grounds assumed by the Pontiffs^ but says : " St. 
Gregory YIL, in undertaking to depose Henry IV., 
relied on the power of binding and loosing^ because 
this power was directly exercised in pronouncing 
excommunication, and its consequence appeared in 
the deposition." ''The question properly at issue 
was not whether the Pope could depose the King, 
but whether he could give the sanction of religion to 
the determination of the German princes, to dethrone 
a tyrant, whose excesses brought ruin and desolation 



274 APPENDIX. 

on tlie kingdom. A party had been already formed, 
who were meditating to depose Henry. His excom- 
munication came just in time to confirm their reso- 
lution." " Those who would fairly judge of the sen- 
tence of Gregory, should first determine in their own 
minds the question, whether tyranny can ever be so 
enormous as to justify the deposition of the sovereign. 
If they judge afiirmatively, as seems to be the settled 
sentiment of our own age, they must acquit the 
Pontiff." The distinction thus attempted to be 
drawn between the legitimate spiritual power of the 
Pope, giving the sanction of religion to the acts of a 
party in the State, and the temporal power of direct 
deposition, is brought out yet more clearly by our 
author in another place. He is speaking of the re- 
lation of lord and vassal under the feudal system, 
and of the obligations from the one to the other, 
which might in certain cases be dissolved, and adds : 
" The spiritual office of the Pope, as head of the 
Church, rendered him the most proper judge of this 
very delicate case of conscience, viz. : when the der- 
eliction of duty by the sovereign was so enormous 
and flagrant as to make void his claims on the al- 
legiance of his vassals. The social position of the 
Pontiff, and his special relations to the empire, gave 
to his decision a civil influence andforce^ in ADDrnoN 
to its DIRECT POWER ovcr coiiscieiice." — P. 285. For 
the directive power over conscience in these matters, 
he cites in a note, Fenelon and Bossuet. Here the 
distinction is clearly made between the social position 
of the Pontiff and his special relations to the empire, 
which might give to his decision a civil influence 



THE ROMAN PKIMACY. 275 

and force, and the spiritual office of the Pope, and 
his directive power over conscience as head of the 
Church. Tlie civil influence of his social position, 
our author is willing to give up, but the spiritual 
office and the directive power of conscience, he is 
compelled to maintain. These last inalienable pre- 
rogatives^ it is declared, make the Pope the pi^ojyer 
judge between the people and their government, and, 
of course, between opposing parties in the state. It 
is a legitimate part of his office to give the sanction 
of religion to one or the other. He may bring '' the 
directive power over conscience^^ to bear m. favor of 
one and against the other. 

Such we are now bound to regard as the settled " 
present doctrine of the Romish communion, with re- 
spect to the authority of the Pope in the civil affairs 
of a nation. And it cannot be less than this. Ad- 
mit the divine institution of the Papacy, and this 
power necessarily flows from it. The question then 
recurs : Is this the constitution of Christ's kingdom 
as He appointed it ? Is this tremendous power an 
integral and essential part of that kingdom ? Did 
the Saviour delegate the whole of His authority to 
a single man, an autocrat, who should rule the wdiole 
world in His name, and make all nations the subjects 
of his discretion ? Whatever may be the institution 
of the Almiglity, must be received with unquestion- 
ing acquiescence. And if indeed the Divine Author 
of our religion has deemed it best for mankind tlius 
violently to disturb and oppose the existing relations 
of society, and to break up those national distinctions, 
and that national independence which, by His Prov- 



276 . APPENDIX. 

idence and direction have been permitted and sanc- 
tioned, it becomes the creatures of His band with 
all joy and humility to submit to the appointment. 
But before our assent is challenged to the existence 
of an institution so subversive of the ordinary course 
of God's Providence and will, it should, at least, be 
required that the proof be clear, definite, and decided. 
But when we learn that the proof actually adduced, 
of this most extraordinary claim, consists entirely of 
a very broad and liberal construction of certain 
highly figurative expressions, addressed by our Lord 
to St. Peter ; that the power thus canstnLctively 
wrought out of a figure^ and conferred upon St. Peter, 
is afterwards, without even a figure of speech to loar- 
rant the transfer^ but by a mere gratuitous assump- 
tion, vested in the Bishops of Rome, to the prejudice 
of all the rest of the Apostles, and of all the other 
successors of St. Peter, and of the whole xlpostolic 
college, we must indignantly resist the proud usur- 
pation. And when we further find that, in default 
of words of positive institution^ the advocates of this 
extravagant power rely principally upon its very 
great convenience and policy^ as a proof of its 
institution, we may be justified in replying to that 
argument, by looking to what would naturally be, 
and has actually been, the practical worthing of this 
power. 

The argument from convenience and expediency, 
in favor of a supreme Pontiff*, a universal Bishop, 
cannot be better than the same argument against the 
existence of such an office. To leave out, then, alto- 
gether, the religious objections to the establishment 



THE KOMAN PKIMACY. 277 

of such an office, making the integrity of Christian 
foith and practice to depend upon one frail man — 
more than other men exposed to temptations — let ns 
look, for a moment, at the civil consequences of such 
an institntion. It is of necessity that one of three 
alternatives must be true, of the supposed universal 
Bishop. He must be a subject of some earthly gov- 
ernment, or he must be himself a sovereign prince ; 
or he may virtually imite both these characters. 
Either of these conditions renders the office of uni- 
versal Bishop an impracticable one, and utterly sub- 
versive of the proper relations of states and empires. 
No government could permit the subject of a foreign 
power to exercise a sway so mighty over the most 
important relations of its people ; having the un- 
checked capacity " to give the sanction of religion '^ 
to the factious views of a party in the state, or to 
give the same tremendous sanction to the foreign 
enemies of the nation. The sovereign of this uni- 
versal Bishop, or the allies of that sovereign, would 
be placed on a vantage-ground over all other nations, 
which would be incompatible with national inde- 
pendence. The only possible corrective for such a 
state of things would be, that the national principle 
should, in any given case, be so much stronger than 
the T^Z^^^(9^^* principle, that the latter would be en- 
tirely neutralized and destroyed. The history of 
Europe, while this Papal supremacy was acknowl- 
edged, exhibits the alternate triumph of one and 
the other of these principles, the superiority of one 
or the other being very much determined by the 
temper and genius of the sovereign or the Pontiff. 

24 



278 APPENDIX. 

Should the universal Bishop be himself a sovereign, 
precisely the same objections would exist to the ex- 
ercise of his authority, as in the case above presented. 
As a national sovereign he has interests of his own, 
or of his allies, to promote, for which he will be sure 
to use his ecclesiastical influence, and thus provoke 
an injimotts conflict between the Church and the 
State ; 6>r .subvert the j)rinciple of national indepen- 
dence, by compelling the state to yield to the force 
of ''the religious sanction" which he employs, and 
accede to the demands of himself or of his friends. 
Such is the conclusion to which reason compels us 
to come, as the necessary result of the supposed in- 
stitution of a universal bishopric in the hands of 
a single man. The practical operation of the sys- 
tem founded upon this imaginary institution, even 
upon the comparatively limited field of modern 
Europe, more than sustains the worst of these con- 
clusions. 

The actual condition of the Papacy has exhibited 
the junction of the two alternatives above presented, 
so as to make the third case which we have supposed. 
The Pope is a sovereign, having always the most 
engrossing temporal interests of his own to serve, 
and he is so weak a sovereign that he is the slave 
and the instrument of either of the strong powers 
around him, who will serve him best, or coerce him 
most vigorously. And, accordingly, the whole his- 
tory of the Papacy is the history of the conflicts and 
of the intrigues of these spiritual princes with the 
courts and with the factions of Europe. 

K such a foreign intervention was destructive to 



THE ROMAN PEIMACY. 2 79 

the peace and to the independence of nations, while 
all were alike subject to monarchial government, 
which, by its energy and directness of operation, 
could contend with something more of equality 
against this vast influence, how much more fatally 
must such intervention operate in a republic, where 
parties are always arrayed against eacli other, and 
where the vilest purposes of an alien enemy may at 
any time be accomplished, by giving an undue pre- 
ponderance to one or the other i^arty, and by shaping 
the course of that party so as most effectually to de- 
stroy the liberties or the independence of the country ? 
Looking at this inevitable result, we may say, with 
assured conviction, that the blessed Saviour of man- 
kind never established such a malignant power as 
the essential constitution of Ilis Church. But this iS 
the very power which the citizens of this republic 
are now insidiously called upon to admit as a new 
element into their political system. " The spiritual 
oflice of the Pope as head of the Church, " and " bis 
directive power over conscience, " are noAV openly 
avowed by the most cautious of Papal advocates, to 
be sufficient reasons for the intervention of the Pon- 
tiffs in the civil affairs of nations, and to make it 
proper for him '' to give the sanction of religion " to 
one or another party in tlie state, according to his 
judgment of right. We have seen already that, 
from the nature of the case, the exercise of this po- 
litical influence is inseparable from the institution 
of a universal spiritual monarchy. And this avow- 
al upon the part of Bishop Kenrick is but a halting 
confession of a necessary principle of the system 



280 APPEISTDIX. 

which he advocates. The wielcler of this fearful 
power is himself the head of an absolute governineiit, 
and he is at once the ally, the slave, and the instru- 
ment of the absolute governments by which his 
principality is surrounded. All these governnaents 
feel that the success of republican institutions in 
America will be fatal to the perpetuity of their own 
despotic authority. What, then, is the policy which 
these powers would be inclined to pursue in regard 
to this republic ? We may learn it in the history of 
our fatherland. Durino; the struo^ffle between free 
principles and arbitrary government in England, 
Papal emissaries stimulated the masses to lawless- 
ness, and so caricatured the rights of the people by 
absurd and licentious pretensions, that unmitigated 
(5dium and contempt were brought upon the prin- 
ciples of free and limited government. 

Bands of Jesuit emissaries from this foreign poten- 
tate now occupy all the prominent positions of our 
country , preaching the doctrine of Papal intervention 
which Bishop Kenrick has avowed. Hordes of alien 
immigrants, accustomed to the sway of this power, 
stand ready to vote the doctrine which the Jesuit 
preaches. Under such tuition, may we not expect 
to see the national freedom of our institutions vilely 
earicatiired, and the government, which our Fathers 
devised, converted into the wild dominion of mobs 
and demagogues ? 

But, whatever use may be made of this Papal in- 
fluence, are we prepared to receive the doctrine, 
upon which it is founded, as the truths graciously 
revealed from heaven to save the world? Is this 



THE ROMAN PRIMACY. 281 

malign and miscliIeYous power tlie institution of 
God, — the essential constitution of that Church 
which Jesus Christ has founded for the salvation of 
mankind ? Reason and religion together tell you, 
nay. The Church of Jesus Christ was founded for 
mankind and for the world. Hence he delegated 
the fulness of power to those who could, literally^ 
" go into all the world," by dividing the world 
amono; tliem. He committed the entire ecclesiasti- 
cal power to the whole college of Apostles, so that 
wherever any one of them went, that one carried 
with him the Church in its integrity, and transmit- 
ted his authority to those bishops who might be the 
citizens of the nations they ministered unto. '* Tlie 
Episcopate," indeed, " is one^^^ as St. Cyprian has 
said, held by many bishops. ''It is a whole, in 
which each enjoys full possession. The Church is 
likewise one, though she be spread abroad, and mul- 
tiplies with the increase of her progeny ; even as the 
sun has rays many, yet one light." " This Unity 
firmly should we hold and maintain, especially we 
bishops, presiding in the Church, in order that we 
may approve the Episcopate itself to be one and un- 
divided." " For although we are many shepherds, 
yet we feed one flock." — Treatise on Unity^ Sec, 4. ; 
Ejns, 68, Sec. 4. 

This is the Gospel institution, proved by the com- 
mission of the Saviour, attested by the unbroken 
consent of the Church for many ages, and sanctioned 
by its perfect adaptation to the condition of man- 
kind, and to the wants of humanity. The institution 
of Bishops, holding jointly, yet each in its entire- 



282 APPENDIX. 

tj, all ecclesiastical aiitlioritj, rendered the Church 
capable of existing in all the icorld^ and perfectly- 
adapted to eyery yariety of clime, character, and in- 
stitution. Tliese Bishops of the whole Catholic 
Church, " united together by the glue of mutual 
concorxl ;" maintaining by a close and constant cor- 
respondence the integrity of the common faith ; and 
administerino- in all the world the self-same sacra- 
ments, constituted that essential Unity of His 
Church for which the blessed Sayiour prayed. To 
keep up the proper correspondence between the 
Bishops, to preserye the mutual dependence of the 
seyeral parts of Christ's kingdom, to enable each 
member of the Episcopal college so to watch oyer 
the whole, " that if any should attempt to introduce 
heresy, and to rend and lay waste the flock of 
Christ, the rest may come in aid, and, as good and 
merciful shepherds, gather the Lord's sheep into the 
fold" — the office of Metropolitan, representing for 
these purposes the Bishops of a particular proyince, 
and the yet higher dignity of Patriarch, represent- 
ing in like manner the Bishops of seyeral proyinces, 
were proyided by the early Christians. This was a 
simple and almost necessary machinery for realizing 
the equal powers of the Bishoj)S, and essential Unity 
of the Church. 

Out of this beginning arose the Papacy, " in 
troublous times." The adyersary, skilfully ayailing 
himself of the exigencies of times and circumstances, 
contriyed, in a part of Christendom, to peryert this 
arrangement into an entire change of the constitu- 
tion of Christ's Church ; making the great Christian 



THE EOMAN PRIMACY. 283 

federal republic to be a vast unwieldy despotism, 
having all antliority centred in a single man. 

The history, therefore, of the subject of Bishop 
Kenrick's book may be thus summarily stated. The 
Episcopate of Rome, as all Episcopacy, is of Divine 
institution. Tlie patriarchate of Eome, as each of 
the other patriarchates, is a human contrivance for 
the more easy and effectual accomplishment of the 
duties of the Episcopal office. The universal bish- 
opric — the Paj)acy — is the devil's happiest device 
for the corruption of the truth, for the subversion of 
Christ's kingdom, and for the entire re-establish- 
ment of his own kingdom of darkness. 

The questions now to be determined by Christian 
people are these : shall we take refuge from the cry- 
ing evils of anarchy, radicalism, and sectarianism, in 
a passive submission to the malign and palsying 
power of the Papal despotism ? Or shall we, in the 
intelligent exercise of the liberty wherewith Christ 
has made His people free, seek, by virtuous effort, 
to maintain the Church in that Divine and original 
constitution, by the operation of which the evils 
uj)on the one hand and upon the other can be 
avoided ? 



THE END. 



Nov] 3 t8(^Tn 



N^OTE TO PAGE 167. 

SixcE tbis ^vork has gone to press, Louis iSTapoleon has 
changed his position soraewliat in regard to the Papacy. The 
Priesthood he had courted and used, became too insolent and 
overbearing for him or for France to submit patiently to its 
exactions. Trusting that the "Empire'' is now firmly estab- 
lished, he has appealed to the intelligence of the people to set 
bounds to sacerdotal tyi'anny. The experiment is a curious 
one, and will be watched with interest by the civilized world. 




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